Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Littlejohn Financial Services Inc.

Littlejohn Financial Services Inc. lessened its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 34.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,614 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,427 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 1.7% of Littlejohn Financial Services Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Littlejohn Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,390,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. AlphaQuest LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $170,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Level Financial Advisors increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% during the second quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,333,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 0.7% in the second quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,373,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Onyx Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Onyx Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,108 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,536,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Foundation Wealth Management LLC PA now owns 1,276 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. New Street Research boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $670.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 18th. Finally, DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $593.28.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was 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. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $393.67 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $470.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $496.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.08. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.23 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.76%.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft beat Q2 expectations on Jan. 28 and reported a record cloud quarter, supporting the long-term growth case for Azure and Copilot adoption improvements. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Certain analysts remain bullish: TD Cowen and Piper Sandler reiterated Buy/Overweight views and high price targets (~$600+), arguing Microsoft remains a top AI hyperscaler play despite near-term noise. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft is partnering with the UK government on deepfake detection — a credibility/PR positive but limited near-term revenue impact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management changes in security leadership and commercial reorganization indicate ongoing operational adjustments; these are execution items investors should monitor. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Stifel issued a rare downgrade to Hold, flagging slower Azure growth, rising AI infrastructure and inference costs, and tougher cloud competition (Google, Anthropic). That downgrade catalyzed much of today’s selling. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts and media highlight OpenAI-related liabilities, Copilot adoption slippage and product usability problems — these raise questions about near-term monetization of AI investments. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Price-target trims and broad software-sector rotation amplified the move; multiple outlets cited analyst cuts and hedge-fund positioning as technical selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market worry over AI capex and margin pressure: some notes point to heavy near-term GPU/inference spending that could compress margins before revenue from AI products scales. Read More.

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).