Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Apollon Financial LLC

Key Points

• Apollon Financial trimmed its Microsoft stake by 2.8% in the second quarter, selling 1,100 shares and retaining 38,455 shares valued at approximately $14.3 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 71.13% of Microsoft.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive on Microsoft, with 42 analysts issuing Buy ratings and five assigning Hold ratings. The stock has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $564.27.
• Microsoft reported quarterly earnings and revenue above expectations, with EPS of $4.74 and revenue of $90.01 billion, while revenue grew 17.7% year over year. The company also increased its quarterly dividend from $0.91 to $0.98 per share, although insiders have sold shares recently.

Apollon Financial LLC trimmed its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 38,455 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,100 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 1.7% of Apollon Financial LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Apollon Financial LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $14,344,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Frankly Finances LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the second quarter worth $35,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $59,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $101,000. Ramsey Quantitative Systems acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $112,000. Finally, Midwest Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.6% in 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 during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on MSFT. Evercore set a $528.00 target price on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $660.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Microsoft from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. KeyCorp reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Argus lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $620.00 to $510.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $564.27.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $493.78 on Monday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.11. The business's 50-day moving average is $466.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $422.94. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $349.20 and a 1 year high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.65 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.83%.

Microsoft News Roundup

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

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Hood sold 41,674 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.27, for a total value of $20,764,903.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 533,624 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $265,888,830.48. This represents a 7.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total transaction of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,009 shares of company stock worth $71,420,699. 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.

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