Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Sells 2,800 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 610,300 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,800 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 5.3% of Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $316,105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 51.3% in the second 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 period. Westend Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $44,000. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 155.7% in the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New AI and robotics announcements — Microsoft unveiled robotics/agentic AI initiatives and pushed further into agentic AI for retail and frontline use, boosting enthusiasm that its product roadmap will translate into revenue from AI workloads. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Defense cloud contract — Microsoft won a sizable Air Force Cloud One task order (~$170M) that validates Azure’s position in government/defense spending and provides a tangible near‑term revenue win. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor reassessment of valuation — After recent weakness MSFT is seeing a rebound as analysts and market commentators highlight Microsoft’s relative growth, profitability and balance‑sheet strength versus software peers. That sentiment helped the stock move back up today. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaffirmations and mixed targets — Several firms (Jefferies, Guggenheim, UBS) kept Buy ratings even as many groups trimmed price targets; that leaves a mix of support and pressure in the tape heading into earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple price‑target cuts and downgrades — A wave of target trims (Cantor Fitzgerald, Wells Fargo adjustments, Rothschild/Redburn cuts and other downgrades) is adding selling pressure and keeps expectations muted into the Jan. 28 earnings print. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Service outages and security/privacy headlines — Recent widespread Microsoft 365/Outlook outages disrupted customers and raised reliability concerns; separate reports about providing BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI introduce potential reputational/privacy scrutiny. Read More.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $465.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40. The company has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $478.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $501.21.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Daiwa Capital Markets cut their price target on Microsoft from $640.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their target price on Microsoft from $639.00 to $590.00 in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $618.18.

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).