Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.

Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. decreased its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 424,300 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 10,100 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 7.4% of Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $219,766,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at $50,493,678,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after buying an additional 90,533,328 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth about $18,733,827,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 49,640.3% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,905,904,000 after acquiring an additional 29,906,791 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691,572 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $639.00 to $590.00 in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets reduced 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.18.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $465.95 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $478.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $501.21.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Microsoft News Summary

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.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Profile

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).