Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Position Lifted by IFM Investors Pty Ltd

IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,452,610 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,379 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 4.5% of IFM Investors Pty Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. IFM Investors Pty Ltd’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $537,713,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 306,150,608 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,060,557,000 after purchasing an additional 6,388,930 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,618,400 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $88,056,019,000 after buying an additional 1,911,142 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 121,220,561 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $58,624,690,000 after buying an additional 980,439 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $50,664,631,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Argus lowered its price target on Microsoft but kept a buy rating, still implying roughly 32% upside from current levels. Benzinga / The Fly report on Argus price target cut
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary continue to point to Microsoft’s AI and Azure buildout as a long-term driver, with one piece arguing that AI data centers are effectively “pre-sold,” suggesting strong demand for Microsoft’s infrastructure spending. Article on AI spending returns
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s recent earnings showed the company beat expectations on both revenue and EPS, reinforcing that the core business remains healthy despite the stock’s weak price action.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s Xbox/gaming unit is facing restructuring under Asha Sharma, including layoffs and tough decisions about studio strategy, which adds uncertainty but could improve efficiency over time. FT article on Xbox changes
• Neutral Sentiment: The Federal Reserve named Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to a jobs-and-productivity task force, keeping Microsoft in the policy conversation around AI and labor, but with no immediate financial impact. Yahoo Finance report on Fed task force
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms issued notices about a securities fraud class action tied to alleged AI/Copilot misrepresentations, increasing headline risk and investor caution. PR Newswire lawsuit notice
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Starbucks is building internal AI to replace some Microsoft software underscore a broader threat: customers may use AI to reduce reliance on Microsoft’s enterprise products, which could pressure future software revenue. MarketBeat Starbucks AI cost-cutting article
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s AI expansion is also drawing criticism over rising emissions and heavy capital spending, feeding worries that the company is paying more for growth while investors question the payback period. TechXplore emissions report

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total transaction of $1,812,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at $19,122,009.12. This represents a 8.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT traded up $0.74 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $385.10. 24,605,248 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 44,511,868. The company has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.13. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $402.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $414.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.The company had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.46 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $540.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, June 4th. China Renaissance dropped their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Forty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $559.84.

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).