Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Sells $2,388,068.80 in Stock

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total transaction of $2,388,068.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 42,677 shares in the company, valued at $21,188,276.96. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Takeshi Numoto also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, June 10th, Takeshi Numoto sold 4,500 shares of Microsoft stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.84, for a total transaction of $1,812,780.00.
• On Monday, June 8th, Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.45, for a total transaction of $1,031,125.00.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of MSFT traded down $5.35 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $487.46. The company had a trading volume of 33,228,674 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,031,965. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $553.72. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $400.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $405.81. The stock has a market cap of $3.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 31.98% and a net margin of 40.31%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.65 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.3% in 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 last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 306,150,608 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,060,557,000 after buying an additional 6,388,930 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during 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 buying an additional 1,911,142 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $50,664,631,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

More Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Azure growth and AI monetization remain the main bullish catalysts. Azure revenue reportedly exceeded $100 billion for fiscal 2026, with fourth-quarter cloud growth accelerating to 43%. Microsoft also reported fiscal-year revenue of $331.8 billion, up 18%, supporting the view that heavy AI infrastructure spending is translating into cloud demand. Microsoft Azure Fiscal 2026 Sales Exceed $100B
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst optimism intensified. Tigress Financial raised its Microsoft price target from $680 to a Street-high $690, citing durable AI and cloud growth. Goldman Sachs also added Microsoft to its conviction list, while other analysts reiterated bullish views after the earnings beat. Tigress Raises Microsoft Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI continues to support Microsoft’s ecosystem. Microsoft disclosed $24.1 billion in revenue tied to OpenAI during the latest fiscal year, while internal developers were instructed to default to OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol in GitHub Copilot projects. The relationship could accelerate AI product adoption, although it also increases customer concentration. OpenAI May Account for 70% of Microsoft’s AI Revenue
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft expanded AI infrastructure and security relationships, including a strategic equity warrant issued by A10 Networks and an AI-agent security collaboration involving Darktrace. These initiatives may strengthen Microsoft’s enterprise AI positioning. A10 Networks Issues Strategic Equity Warrant to Microsoft

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. Raymond James Financial cut Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, July 20th. CLSA reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Forty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $558.87.

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).