Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Holdings Lifted by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7,429.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,107,445 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,092,736 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 1.8% of Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $539,436,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 410.4% during the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,735,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. 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 launched a new AI agent with pay-as-you-go pricing, a shift that could improve monetization and help the company capture more revenue as customers adopt usage-based AI tools.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Microsoft is exploring lower-cost AI model options for Copilot, which could reduce infrastructure costs and improve profitability if implemented successfully.
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s product and AI roadmap continues to attract long-term bulls, with analysts and investors still pointing to the company’s strong enterprise position and AI-driven growth potential.
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft was reported to have held talks for a $3 billion Oracle cloud infrastructure lease, but the deal reportedly collapsed over security and compliance issues, limiting any near-term impact on operations.
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage around a possible Xbox restructuring or spin-off highlights strategic uncertainty in gaming, though it could eventually improve Microsoft’s overall margin profile if the division is separated or reshaped.
• Negative Sentiment: Shareholders filed a class action and securities-fraud investigations were announced over alleged misstatements tied to Azure growth and AI spending, creating legal and reputational overhang for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Microsoft may shut down or restructure Xbox studios add to concerns that the gaming segment is a drag on profitability and could require more restructuring costs.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent commentary also points to heavy AI capital expenditures and softer Azure growth, reinforcing investor worries that Microsoft’s spending is rising faster than its cloud revenue growth.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Microsoft from $641.00 to $646.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. President Capital lifted their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Evercore lowered their target price on Microsoft from $580.00 to $510.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Forty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $561.20.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.5%

Microsoft stock opened at $393.83 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $356.28 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $412.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $427.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The business had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.46 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 21.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,922,874.02. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).