Flaharty Asset Management LLC Reduces Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Flaharty Asset Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 84.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,474 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 8,261 shares during the quarter. Flaharty Asset Management LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $576,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant's stock worth $347,211,391,000 after acquiring an additional 15,955,898 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.1% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,618,400 shares of the software giant's stock worth $88,056,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,911,142 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings 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 worth $58,624,690,000 after buying an additional 980,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,664,631,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of MSFT opened at $487.31 on Tuesday. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $421.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $409.73. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $553.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The company had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $87.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.65 earnings per share. Microsoft's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.27%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares of the company's stock, valued at $50,928,792.23. The trade was a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. This trade represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 37,310 shares of company stock valued at $17,256,219. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $515.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. President Capital boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. DZ Bank reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 30th. China Renaissance dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $550.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, CLSA reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Forty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $560.27.

Key Stories Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s data-center expansion is becoming central to the bullish case. Analysts argue that demand is already supported by booked orders, with the company’s commercial backlog reportedly reaching approximately $678 billion. The opportunity depends on how quickly Microsoft can add capacity and deliver Azure AI services. Microsoft Stock's Upside Now Runs Through Its Data Center Build
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple market commentaries remain constructive on Microsoft’s enterprise AI platform, citing Azure, Office and the company’s broader software ecosystem as sources of a durable competitive moat. Recent earnings also showed strong momentum, with revenue growth of 17.7% and earnings exceeding expectations. Microsoft Stock in 2027: My Prediction Is That It Still Beats the Market
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox release schedule could help stabilize or revive gaming revenue after a recent sales slowdown, although the impact depends on the performance of the new titles. Can Xbox's Upcoming Gaming Roster Lift MSFT's Gaming Revenues?
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that employees shared compensation details and monthly AI usage costs in internal spreadsheets provide transparency but have limited direct earnings implications. They may nevertheless draw attention to Microsoft’s workforce costs and the scale of internal AI adoption. Microsoft employees reveal how much cash they're burning on AI
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that heavy AI infrastructure spending is outpacing shareholder distributions and could weigh on free cash flow, margins and future dividend growth. Related commentary also highlights the broader debt burden associated with the AI buildout. Microsoft's AI spending and dividend costs
• Negative Sentiment: Australia’s new rules requiring large digital platforms to compensate local news publishers create additional obligations for LinkedIn and could modestly increase regulatory and operating costs. Microsoft Gets New Australia News Rules

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).

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