Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Position Lowered by GFI Investment Counsel Ltd.

Key Points

• GFI Investment Counsel Ltd. reduced its Microsoft stake by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, selling 3,889 shares and leaving it with 179,893 shares valued at about $87 million. Microsoft remains the firm’s largest portfolio holding at roughly 9.3% of assets.
• Analysts remain broadly positive on MSFT: forty-one rate it a Buy and six a Hold, with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $561.20. Recent target changes were mixed, with some firms raising targets while others trimmed them.
• Microsoft’s latest results beat expectations, reporting EPS of $4.27 on $82.89 billion in revenue, and the company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share. Insider selling was also noted, including sales by EVP Takeshi Numoto and CEO Judson Althoff.

GFI Investment Counsel Ltd. trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 179,893 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 3,889 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 9.3% of GFI Investment Counsel Ltd.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. GFI Investment Counsel Ltd.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $87,000,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 51.3% in the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 287.0% in the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant's stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $525.00 price objective (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $392.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $510.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. HSBC lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $593.00 to $571.00 in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Forty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $561.20.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $379.40 on Friday. 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 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $412.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $425.58. The company has a market cap of $2.82 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.58, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.11.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. Microsoft's revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.67%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total value of $1,812,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 47,468 shares in the company, valued at $19,122,009.12. This trade represents a 8.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock worth $10,508,361. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New reporting suggests Microsoft is still benefiting from strong AI demand, including ByteDance spending more than $1 billion annually on Azure AI services and broader commentary that Azure growth and AI run-rate remain major drivers of investor interest. Microsoft Builds $1 Billion-Plus AI Business With ByteDance
• Positive Sentiment: Several pieces argued Microsoft’s pullback may be creating a buying opportunity because the company still has strong cash flow, dividend growth, and discounted valuation relative to its AI prospects. Microsoft's Boring Stock Story May Be Its Biggest Strength
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft also drew attention for product and ecosystem updates, including a possible PayPal integration for Xbox buy-now-pay-later checkout and new Teams features, but these are not likely near-term stock movers. Microsoft Sizes Up PayPal as Xbox Leak Exposes Buy Now Pay Later Plans
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms announced or promoted securities class actions tied to Microsoft, alleging investors were harmed by misleading AI/Copilot-related statements during the May 2025 to January 2026 period. These legal headlines can weigh on sentiment. Portnoy Law Firm Announces Class Action on Behalf of Microsoft Corporation Investors
• Negative Sentiment: Another negative overhang is the claim that Copilot functionality issues contributed to a sharp stock drop, reinforcing investor concerns about execution risk and AI spending efficiency. Investor Rights Alert: Microsoft Faces Securities Fraud Class Action after Copilot Issues
• Negative Sentiment: There is also renewed concern that Microsoft’s gaming strategy is under pressure, with coverage pointing to the Steam Machine and broader cost-cutting in gaming as threats to growth in that segment. The Biggest Threat to Microsoft’s Gaming Ambitions is the Steam Machine

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).

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.