Triangle Securities Wealth Management Sells 1,556 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Triangle Securities Wealth Management reduced its Microsoft stake by 7.1%, selling 1,556 shares in the second quarter and retaining 20,364 shares valued at approximately $7.6 million. Microsoft remains about 1.5% of the firm’s portfolio.
• Microsoft reported strong quarterly results, with revenue rising 17.7% year over year to $90.01 billion and earnings of $4.74 per share, surpassing analyst expectations. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating with an average price target of $562.49.
• Institutional investors own 71.13% of Microsoft, while insiders have been net sellers, disposing of 108,335 shares worth about $53.5 million over the past 90 days. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share, yielding approximately 0.7%.

Triangle Securities Wealth Management trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 20,364 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,556 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.5% of Triangle Securities Wealth Management's holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. Triangle Securities Wealth Management's holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,596,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $50,664,631,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 56,160.8% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 60,116,384 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $29,073,486,000 after acquiring an additional 60,009,531 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth about $18,733,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 500.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 59,543,261 shares of the software giant's stock worth $30,840,432,000 after purchasing an additional 49,618,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 49,640.3% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant's stock worth $14,905,904,000 after purchasing an additional 29,906,791 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft will begin disclosing quarterly Azure revenue in fiscal 2027 and consolidate its reporting structure from three segments to two. The added transparency should allow investors to compare Azure more directly with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud and could highlight the scale of AI-driven demand. Microsoft to reveal Azure cloud sales in financial reporting shift
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its Microsoft price target to $600 from $500, citing accelerating Azure growth, improving AI efficiency and more than 30 million paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seats. The bullish view reinforces expectations that Microsoft can convert AI infrastructure spending into higher revenue and earnings. Microsoft's AI strategy accelerates cloud growth and efficiency: analysts
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is expanding its AI ecosystem through a 20-year power agreement supporting a planned West Texas data center, a HUMAIN partnership targeting up to one million enterprise users in the Middle East and Africa, and new Microsoft 365 Copilot integrations. These agreements support long-term cloud, infrastructure and productivity growth, although near-term profitability depends on execution. Microsoft Signed a 20-Year AI Power Deal With Chevron
• Neutral Sentiment: An EU court rejected Opera’s challenge to Microsoft Edge’s exemption from certain Digital Markets Act obligations. The ruling reduces an immediate regulatory burden for Edge, but its direct financial effect is likely limited. EU court rejects Opera challenge against Microsoft's Edge exemption
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 MSFT shares worth approximately $43.4 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. Although scheduled sales generally do not signal a change in business outlook, the transaction reduced his position by 15.09%; broader insider activity has also consisted entirely of sales over the past six months. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Form 4 filing
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned about Microsoft’s roughly $116 billion in annual property and equipment spending. The AI buildout could drive substantial growth, but depreciation, power constraints and uncertain returns may pressure margins if demand fails to keep pace. Big Tech Spent Over $1 Trillion on AI
• Negative Sentiment: Additional pressure came from reports of a controversial Windows 11 feature, continuing concerns about a Microsoft 365 outage, and criticism surrounding 3,200 Xbox job cuts. These issues may weigh on user sentiment and highlight risks in Microsoft’s consumer and gaming businesses. Xbox layoffs

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on MSFT. Guggenheim reissued a "buy" rating and set a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $680.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Microsoft from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $575.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Evercore set a $528.00 target price on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Forty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $562.49.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction of $4,878,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 100,447 shares of the company's stock, valued at $49,007,086.83. This represents a 9.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. This trade represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 108,335 shares of company stock worth $53,499,700. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $496.82 on Thursday. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $438.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $414.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.66, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.11. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $553.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.65 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.59 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Microsoft's payout ratio is 20.27%.

Microsoft Company 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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