Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Purchases 19,888 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management increased its Microsoft stake by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, buying 19,888 shares and bringing its total holding to 1,345,944 shares worth about $650.9 million.
• Microsoft remains heavily owned by institutions, with hedge funds and other investors holding 71.13% of the company’s shares, while several other funds also added to their positions during the quarter.
• Analyst sentiment is still broadly positive despite a few mixed calls: Microsoft has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating, a target price of $561.20, and its latest earnings beat expectations with revenue up 18.3% year over year.

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,345,944 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 19,888 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 5.1% of Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd's holdings in Microsoft were worth $650,925,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. raised its position in Microsoft by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. now owns 12,447 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $6,020,000 after buying an additional 1,447 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 17,184 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $8,311,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp now owns 8,752 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,232,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Liberty Atlantic Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $610,000. Finally, Alpha Cubed Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 304,424 shares of the software giant's stock worth $147,226,000 after acquiring an additional 12,464 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. President Capital lifted their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Microsoft from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. Daiwa Securities Group reduced their price target on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Microsoft from $641.00 to $646.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Forty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $561.20.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled new in-house AI models at Build, including MAI-Code-1 and MAI-Thinking-1, signaling it is reducing reliance on OpenAI and Anthropic while lowering costs for developers.
• Positive Sentiment: The company introduced Microsoft Scout, an always-on personal agent for Microsoft 365, and other agentic AI tools, reinforcing the view that Microsoft is expanding its AI monetization opportunities.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft and Nvidia deepened their partnership on AI PCs and agentic computing across Windows and Azure, which investors viewed as a major catalyst for the Windows ecosystem and future hardware/software demand.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft also highlighted its quantum computing progress with the Majorana 2 chip, adding to the company’s long-term innovation narrative.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analysts and media reports remained constructive, with commentary pointing to strong Azure upside, AI demand, and a favorable long-term valuation case for MSFT.
• Neutral Sentiment: Build 2026 generated broad attention across the market, but some reports noted Microsoft teased a Copilot “Super App” without fully unveiling it, which may have tempered expectations.
• Negative Sentiment: Judson Althoff sold 15,500 Microsoft shares in an SEC-disclosed transaction, which can create short-term investor concern even though the sale was relatively modest versus his remaining holdings.
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage cited profit-taking and concerns about capital intensity, margin pressure, and a possible AI policy overhang, helping explain the pullback despite the positive product news.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $441.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.27, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $403.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $433.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $356.28 and a 12-month high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 29,083 shares of company stock valued at $12,710,152. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

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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