Insider Selling: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Sells 15,500 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Microsoft CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares on June 1 at an average price of $460.99, generating about $7.15 million. After the sale, he still directly owned 110,477 shares.
• MSFT shares were down on the day, trading at $441.31, even as volume stayed close to its recent average. The stock remains near the upper end of its 52-week range, with a market value of about $3.28 trillion.
• Microsoft continues to show strong fundamentals and shareholder returns, having recently beaten quarterly EPS and revenue estimates and announcing a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share. Wall Street remains broadly positive, with a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy.”

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at $50,928,792.23. This trade represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT traded down $19.21 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $441.31. 36,758,378 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 35,917,828. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $403.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $433.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.11. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $356.28 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 39.34%.Microsoft's revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.46 earnings per share. 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, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is presently 21.67%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BLVD Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. BLVD Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,169 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,641,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Magnolia Capital Management Ltd. now owns 6,509 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $3,371,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. ARK & TLK Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. ARK & TLK Investments LLC now owns 1,935 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,002,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Rochester Wealth Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Rochester Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 700 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $363,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft unveiled seven homegrown AI models, signaling it wants greater independence from OpenAI and Anthropic while lowering long-term AI costs.
• Positive Sentiment: The company showcased a new quantum chip at Build, highlighting progress in another potentially high-value frontier technology.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is gaining attention for AI-powered Windows PCs and new Surface hardware partnerships, which could support future device and software demand.
• Neutral Sentiment: New partnerships and integrations around Microsoft Fabric, Azure, Copilot, and healthcare AI continue to expand the company’s ecosystem, but the near-term financial impact is still unclear.
• Negative Sentiment: Shares are also facing pressure from profit-taking, valuation concerns, insider selling headlines, and uncertainty tied to Washington policy and AI regulation.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their target price on Microsoft from $556.00 to $555.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. HSBC lowered their target price on Microsoft from $593.00 to $571.00 in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Microsoft from $575.00 to $550.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Dbs Bank lowered their target price on Microsoft from $678.00 to $573.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Phillip Securities raised Microsoft to a "buy" rating and set a $485.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Forty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $561.20.

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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