Lesa Sroufe & Co Decreases Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Lesa Sroufe & Co. reduced its Microsoft stake by 4.9% in the second quarter, selling 1,220 shares. Microsoft remains the firm’s largest holding, representing 6.1% of its portfolio and valued at $8.8 million.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish, with a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $564.27. Microsoft also reported quarterly earnings and revenue above expectations, with revenue rising 17.7% year over year.
• Microsoft increased its quarterly dividend from $0.91 to $0.98 per share, an 8% increase. Separately, CEO Satya Nadella and EVP Amy Hood sold shares under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plans.

Lesa Sroufe & Co lowered its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 23,584 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,220 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 6.1% of Lesa Sroufe & Co's portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Lesa Sroufe & Co's holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Frankly Finances LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $101,000. Ramsey Quantitative Systems bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $112,000. Finally, Midwest Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC now owns 422 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $156,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $515.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Citizens Jmp reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Evercore set a $528.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $545.00 to $512.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $564.27.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $493.78 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.11. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $553.72. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $466.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $422.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.23.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.The business's revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.65 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This is an increase from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft's payout ratio is presently 21.83%.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s Azure and AI businesses remain the primary bullish catalysts. Analysts point to accelerating cloud growth, broad enterprise adoption and Microsoft’s distribution advantage through Azure, Microsoft 365 and Copilot. These Magnificent Seven Members Still Look Cheap
• Positive Sentiment: Causaly expanded its collaboration with Microsoft, making its agentic scientific-research tools available within Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft 365 and Teams. The deal supports Microsoft’s strategy of adding specialized AI workflows to its enterprise software ecosystem. Causaly is Now Available in Microsoft Copilot
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s 8% quarterly dividend increase reinforces its strong cash generation and provides shareholder support, although the company continues to invest heavily in cloud and AI infrastructure. Microsoft Slips as Its Quarterly Dividend Climbs 8%
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman called recent reports of concerning model behavior at OpenAI a “serious situation” and emphasized the need for controllable, human-aligned AI. The comments highlight Microsoft’s safety focus but also underscore reputational and product-liability risks across the sector. OpenAI's latest AI revelation is a serious situation
• Negative Sentiment: Unsealed filings reportedly include Microsoft and OpenAI employees’ concerns that AI training on millions of news articles could amount to the “largest theft of labor in human history.” The disclosures may weaken the companies’ fair-use defense and increase potential litigation, licensing and regulatory costs. OpenAI, Microsoft executives' quotes on AI training threaten copyright defense
• Negative Sentiment: Reports of insider selling added to near-term sentiment pressure, while Microsoft faces competitive challenges from Salesforce’s AIforce and ongoing debate over whether its substantial AI spending will generate adequate returns. Microsoft Trading Down After Insider Selling

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total value of $43,388,826.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 486,763 shares of the company's stock, valued at $244,092,173.98. This represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total transaction of $20,764,903.98. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 533,624 shares of the company's stock, valued at $265,888,830.48. This trade represents a 7.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 143,009 shares of company stock valued at $71,420,699 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital solutions for consumers, businesses and public-sector organizations. Its products and services include the Windows operating system, Microsoft 365 productivity applications, Teams collaboration software, Dynamics business applications and Azure cloud computing services.

The company also operates LinkedIn, GitHub and Xbox, which includes gaming consoles, video games and related online services.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.