Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Position Increased by BOCHK Asset Management Ltd

Key Points

• BOCHK Asset Management Ltd increased its Microsoft stake by 34.6% in Q4, buying 3,800 shares to hold 14,780 shares worth $7.148 million, about 1.9% of its portfolio and its 5th-largest position.
• Microsoft beat quarterly estimates with EPS of $4.14 (vs. $3.86 expected) and revenue of $81.27B (up 16.7% YoY), and declared a $0.91 quarterly dividend ($3.64 annual, 0.9% yield; ex-dividend May 21).
• Major institutions (Vanguard, State Street, Geode, Northern Trust) have continued to add to MSFT and hedge funds own ~71.13% of the stock; analysts are trimming near-term targets but the consensus rating is a “Moderate Buy” with an average price target of $570.

BOCHK Asset Management Ltd increased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 34.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 14,780 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 3,800 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.9% of BOCHK Asset Management Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. BOCHK Asset Management Ltd's holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,148,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant's stock worth $259,539,471,000 after buying an additional 7,314,509 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant's stock worth $148,823,341,000 after buying an additional 3,166,275 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant's stock worth $88,714,256,000 after buying an additional 3,532,054 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth $50,493,678,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.0%

Microsoft stock opened at $424.82 on Tuesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $356.28 and a 1-year high of $555.45. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.11. The stock's fifty day moving average is $393.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $449.40.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The company had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $80.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.23 earnings per share. Microsoft's quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is 22.76%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $500.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on Microsoft from $659.00 to $556.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 10th. HSBC cut their price objective on Microsoft from $667.00 to $588.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $570.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total value of $5,045,695.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares in the company, valued at $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John W. Stanton acquired 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 83,905 shares of the company's stock, valued at $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Accenture will deploy Microsoft Copilot to ~743,000 employees, a large enterprise adoption that should boost Microsoft 365/Commercial monetization and validate Copilot demand. Accenture to roll out Copilot to all 743,000 employees in boost for Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Notable value investor Michael Burry disclosed a new MSFT purchase, a signal some traders view as a contrarian endorsement after recent weakness. Michael Burry Just Bought Microsoft. It’s a Genius Move Worth Following
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive but are trimming targets and recalibrating near-term expectations ahead of earnings — Oppenheimer reaffirmed Outperform but cut its PT; Cantor Fitzgerald trimmed its target too. That keeps long‑term thesis intact but raises short‑term uncertainty. Oppenheimer Outperform, PT Cut (Benzinga)
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary and previews (Jefferies, Evercore, others) flag Q3 earnings as pivotal — strong cloud and AI numbers could reignite the rally, so near-term price action will hinge on Wednesday’s print. Microsoft Q3 preview: Jefferies says it's time to reset the narrative
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft and OpenAI rewrote their deal: Microsoft’s exclusive license ends, OpenAI can sell products on AWS/Google Cloud, and Microsoft will stop traditional revenue sharing — a change that reduces Azure’s exclusivity moat and spurred an immediate share pullback as investors price higher cloud competition. Microsoft and OpenAI gut their exclusive deal, freeing OpenAI to sell on AWS and Google Cloud
• Negative Sentiment: Operational and regulatory noise: an Outlook.com sign‑in outage and a new UK antitrust lawsuit from Slack over Teams bundling add execution and legal risk that could weigh on near‑term sentiment. Microsoft says Outlook.com outage is causing sign‑in failures - BleepingComputer Microsoft facing UK antitrust lawsuit from Slack over Teams 'bundling' (Reuters)

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).

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