Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Trading Down 1.8% on Insider Selling

Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) traded down 1.8% on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $384.00 and last traded at $390.34. 46,285,764 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 29% from the average session volume of 35,872,313 shares. The stock had previously closed at $397.36.

Specifically, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.45, for a total value of $1,031,125.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 51,968 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,434,201.60. This represents a 4.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $550.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. New Street Research dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $525.00 price objective (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. Forty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $561.20.

Key Headlines Impacting Microsoft

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft continues to benefit from AI and cloud demand, including a new 260 MW solar supply agreement tied to its infrastructure needs, which supports the long-term growth story. MN8 Energy Delivers 260 MW of Solar to Microsoft Across Two U.S. Power Markets
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft also announced its quarterly dividend, reinforcing its cash-generation profile and shareholder returns. Microsoft announces quarterly dividend
• Neutral Sentiment: Build 2026 and related AI product updates keep investor attention on Microsoft’s Copilot and agentic AI roadmap, but the market is still waiting to see whether those investments translate into faster monetization. Microsoft Just Gave Investors 3 Dates They Can’t Afford to Ignore
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s limits on employees using Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 highlight tighter AI governance and data-retention scrutiny, but the direct impact on earnings appears limited. Microsoft limits employee use of Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 over data retention concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Bloomberg-reported plans for major Xbox layoffs and budget cuts are pressuring sentiment, raising concerns about slower growth and weaker margins in the gaming unit. Microsoft’s Xbox plans for major layoffs next month
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Microsoft is cutting hundreds of Azure jobs in China add to worries about geopolitical risk and the pace of cloud expansion in that market. Microsoft lays off hundreds from Azure unit in China
• Negative Sentiment: Commentary around “tokenmaxxing,” AI overuse, and rising AI data-center costs suggests investors are becoming more cautious about how efficiently Microsoft can convert heavy AI spending into profits. Satya Nadella Warns Against AI Overuse

Microsoft Stock Down 1.8%

The firm has a market cap of $2.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.23, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28. The business’s 50-day moving average is $410.24 and its 200-day moving average is $429.80.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced 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 business had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.46 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. PMG Family Office LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at $828,000. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the third quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 70,175 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,347,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 949,901 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 9,700 shares during the last quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 12,492 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,041,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2,332.1% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 6,746,017 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,262,509,000 after purchasing an additional 6,468,645 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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).