Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Acquired by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,109,372 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,468 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 3.2% of Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $410,656,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 306,150,608 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,060,557,000 after purchasing an additional 6,388,930 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,618,400 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $88,056,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,911,142 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 121,220,561 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $58,624,690,000 after buying an additional 980,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $50,664,631,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $389.10 on Tuesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $349.20 and a 52-week high of $555.45. 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 has a fifty day moving average of $397.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $406.99. The stock has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.16, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.06 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $82.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.44 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.46 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. New Street Research decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Citizens Jmp started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, June 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $550.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $646.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Forty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $554.73.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft launched Project Perception, an agentic security platform designed to detect and respond to AI-powered cyberattacks in real time. The company also introduced its first in-house cybersecurity model, MAI-Cyber-1-Flash. The products could strengthen Microsoft’s position in the growing enterprise cybersecurity market and create additional demand for Azure and security software. Microsoft launches its first cybersecurity model and a new agentic cybersecurity system
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to report healthy Azure and broader cloud demand, with AI demand reportedly exceeding available capacity. UBS maintained a Buy rating, while Guggenheim reaffirmed its Buy rating with a $586 price target. Consensus expectations for Wednesday call for approximately $87.42 billion in revenue and $4.21 in earnings per share. Microsoft faces AI capex scrutiny as it prepares to report Q4 results
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft’s expanded partnership with Mistral and its work on custom chips support the company’s strategy of making Azure a leading platform for enterprise AI workloads. Investors view continued AI adoption and cloud monetization as potential catalysts for the earnings report.
• Neutral Sentiment: The immediate focus is Microsoft’s planned roughly $190 billion in annual capital spending, a reported 61% increase. The investment could support long-term Azure growth, but the market wants evidence that cloud revenue and AI demand are growing fast enough to justify the cost. Options markets imply a potentially large post-earnings move of about 7.24%. Microsoft Plans $190 Billion of Capital Spending This Year
• Negative Sentiment: Investors have recently been less willing to reward strong technology earnings because of concerns about AI spending returns, heavy debt issuance across the AI ecosystem, and margin pressure. Microsoft’s elevated spending could therefore weigh on the stock if Azure growth or forward guidance disappoints.
• Negative Sentiment: Several law firms publicized securities class-action lawsuits alleging investor harm and misleading disclosures related to Microsoft’s Copilot positioning, data silos, and interoperability. The claims are an overhang, although their near-term financial impact is uncertain. Microsoft investor class-action announcement

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total transaction 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 represents a 12.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,922,874.02. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361. Corporate insiders own 0.03% 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).