Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Kathleen Hogan Sells 12,321 Shares

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Kathleen Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 137,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,486,322.16. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded up $0.45 during trading on Monday, hitting $409.41. 30,055,489 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 37,643,570. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $435.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $479.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.38.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.23 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $641.00 price objective (down from $645.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.95.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% during the second 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. Bernzott Capital Advisors bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 287.0% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched Copilot Cowork — an AI agent built on Anthropic’s Claude — positioning Copilot as an enterprise-grade agent platform intended to win large customers and counter fears that competing AI models will erode Microsoft’s SaaS revenue. Microsoft unveils Copilot Cowork agents built on Anthropic’s AI
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft rolled out an enterprise E7 bundle (Microsoft 365 E5 + Copilot + Agent 365) priced at ~$99/user/month, which increases per-seat monetization and creates a clearer upsell path from Microsoft 365 to higher‑margin AI seats. This supports revenue per user and Azure consumption from AI workloads. Microsoft adds higher-priced Office tier with Copilot
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s strategy to host multiple frontier models (Anthropic + OpenAI) on Azure — a “best‑model” approach — reinforces Azure as the default infrastructure for enterprise AI, which should drive incremental cloud consumption and support long‑term top‑line growth. (See MarketBeat coverage on dual‑model strategy.)
• Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic is suing the Pentagon after receiving a supply‑chain risk designation; Microsoft has said Anthropic products remain available to its federal customers (except DoD). The dispute creates policy uncertainty around Anthropic but Microsoft’s continued commercial support limits immediate disruption to its product roadmap. Anthropic sues to block Pentagon blacklisting
• Neutral Sentiment: Minor market noise: an Xbox-related rumor briefly moved sentiment and prompted “rumor control” coverage; this appears to be a short‑lived volatility factor rather than a fundamental driver. “Blank Check” For Xbox? Microsoft Stock Dips as Rumor Control Sets In
• Negative Sentiment: Sector‑wide AI/agent optimism and new model launches have already driven a volatile selloff in software; MSFT is down materially YTD from earlier highs, reflecting investor concern that AI could disrupt legacy SaaS economics or compress adoption in the near term. Coverage noting a ~15% YTD decline heightens sensitivity to execution. Microsoft (MSFT) Stock Integrates Anthropic’s Claude into New Copilot Cowork Feature
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and legal risk: separate lawsuits and complaints around AI safety (claims against releases like GPT‑4o) increase litigation and compliance risk for Microsoft’s rapidly expanding generative AI portfolio, which could raise costs or disclosures over time. Lawsuit Challenges Microsoft AI Safety

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).