Insider Selling: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Sells 10,000 Shares of Stock

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,007,086.83. The trade was a 9.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Judson Althoff also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, June 1st, Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of Microsoft stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.5%

NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $12.40 on Thursday, reaching $499.86. The stock had a trading volume of 35,386,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,015,375. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $349.20 and a 12-month high of $553.72. The company has a market cap of $3.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $402.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $406.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.65 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 20.27%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.9% in the third quarter. Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC now owns 431 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $223,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Better Money Decisions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% in the second quarter. Better Money Decisions LLC now owns 3,498 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,740,000 after buying an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.4% during the third quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. now owns 5,251 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,720,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pollock Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pollock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,453,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore set a $528.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $510.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Arete Research increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $730.00 to $870.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $558.87.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Azure growth exceeded expectations. Azure and other cloud services revenue increased 43% in the latest quarter, while fiscal-year Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion. Microsoft also reported $90.01 billion in quarterly revenue and $4.74 in EPS, ahead of analyst estimates. Microsoft Azure Fiscal 2026 Sales Exceed $100 Billion
• Positive Sentiment: AI demand is broadening Microsoft’s growth opportunity. Microsoft opened its largest India data-center hub in Hyderabad, signed Adani Group and HDFC Bank as early users, and committed approximately $20.5 billion to expand its Indian operations. Its MAI-Cyber-1-Flash model also strengthens the company’s cybersecurity and AI-agent offerings. Microsoft Opens Its Largest India Data Center Hub
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly constructive. Analysts have raised price targets after the earnings report, citing durable cloud growth, strong cash generation and rising Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption. The company’s roughly 25% monthly gain shows that investors have regained confidence in its AI strategy.
• Neutral Sentiment: OpenAI concentration is a potential risk. Reports suggest OpenAI may account for approximately 70% of Microsoft’s AI revenue. That relationship is a major commercial advantage, but dependence on one partner and model provider could increase execution and concentration risk. OpenAI May Account for 70 Percent of Microsoft’s AI Revenue
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and capital-spending concerns remain. Microsoft’s rally has lifted its valuation, while massive data-center commitments and AI infrastructure spending could pressure margins if demand or monetization slows.
• Negative Sentiment: Legal and insider-sale headlines add uncertainty. Several law firms publicized a securities class action alleging misleading AI-related statements; the allegations have not been proven. Separately, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold about $2.4 million of shares, a transaction that may encourage some profit-taking but is not, by itself, evidence of deteriorating fundamentals. Microsoft Executive Share Sale

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).