Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Orleans Capital Management Corp LA

Orleans Capital Management Corp LA reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,206 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 5,318 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 5.4% of Orleans Capital Management Corp LA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Orleans Capital Management Corp LA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,394,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Phillip Securities raised shares of Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday, February 1st. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $600.00 price target (down from $650.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. New Street Research raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $670.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $586.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Microsoft from $660.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.95.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.52, for a total transaction 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 $56,486,322.16. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John W. Stanton bought 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $397.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,986,750.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 83,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Trending Headlines about Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Sell‑side support remains strong — several firms have reiterated buys/outperform and bullish price targets, which underpins long‑term investor confidence. William Blair reiterates Outperform on Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Product/AI momentum — Microsoft is rolling out Copilot Health, agentic Copilot features across Office apps, and the new Microsoft 365 E7 AI bundle (adds Anthropic Claude Cowork, Agent 365, Entra), all of which support higher‑value commercial monetization and stickier cloud revenue. Copilot Health paves path to medical superintelligence
• Positive Sentiment: Social and trader sentiment is highlighting agentic Copilot and AI infrastructure leadership as reasons for near‑term support and potential upside if resistance breaks. Quiver Quant summary of Agentic Copilot buzz
• Neutral Sentiment: Xbox roadmap and gaming hardware (Project Helix prototypes to developers in 2027) bolster long‑term diversification but have limited near‑term revenue impact. CNBC on Project Helix
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst price targets remain elevated (median targets well above current levels) and institutional positioning is mixed — supportive for a medium‑term recovery but not an immediate catalyst. Zacks on analyst views
• Negative Sentiment: High and rising capital expenditures for AI data centers are a near‑term earnings headwind; investor letters and coverage flag capex intensity as a reason MSFT has underperformed peers despite strong top‑line growth. InsiderMonkey on data center capex concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Leadership change — Rajesh Jha, a senior exec tied to Office/Copilot rollouts, is retiring; markets tend to discount execution risk when key product leaders depart. Reuters on Rajesh Jha retirement
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/political risk — Microsoft’s public support for Anthropic in its legal fight with the Pentagon raises short‑term uncertainty around government contracting and could create customer/contract exposure. FT: Microsoft backs Anthropic vs Pentagon
• Negative Sentiment: Macro and market‑structure risk — rotation out of megacap tech and warnings about midterm‑year volatility are pressuring MSFT along with peers. Technical support levels around the recent pullback are being watched by traders. MarketBeat mid‑March market warning

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $401.86 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $429.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $476.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 22.76%.

Microsoft 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).