Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Lawson Kroeker Investment Management Inc. NE

Lawson Kroeker Investment Management Inc. NE lowered its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 18.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 34,045 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 7,599 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 4.9% of Lawson Kroeker Investment Management Inc. NE’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Lawson Kroeker Investment Management Inc. NE’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $16,465,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its stake 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 during the period. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Stance Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Key Microsoft News

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Historic multi‑day rally and an “extreme bounce” vs. options pricing — momentum traders are piling in after an unusually large short‑term rebound that options markets hadn’t priced. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New commercial wins and partnerships widen enterprise AI reach — a five‑year strategic AI, cybersecurity and cloud deal with Stellantis expands Microsoft’s addressable market in automotive software and services. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure buildouts support product adoption — Microsoft secured spare capacity at a Norway data center originally tied to OpenAI (adding large GPU capacity) and an early online Fairweather data center, strengthening Azure’s AI compute supply. Read More. • Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street support remains — TD Cowen reiterated a Buy with a $540 target (still below prior $610 target) and other analysts continue to see long‑term AI/cloud upside, giving investors conviction to buy the dip. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Government adoption of Microsoft AI tools (CFTC surveillance) highlights public‑sector demand but is unlikely to move near‑term revenue materially — reflects platform credibility more than a big immediate revenue boost. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Heavy options and unusual volume are amplifying moves — some of the price action reflects positioning and technical dynamics rather than fundamental news. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Competition and product risk — reports that Anthropic/OpenAI moves and new models (Claude Mythos) could pressure Copilot adoption raise execution and competitive risk for Microsoft’s AI offerings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst caution and valuation headwinds — some firms recently cut price targets (Piper Sandler, Robert W. Baird, etc.) and investors remain concerned about heavy AI capex (data‑center spending) weighing on near‑term returns. Read More. • Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reputational/ESG noise — the NYT piece on Microsoft scaling back carbon‑removal commitments could prompt criticism and potential impairments or higher scrutiny. Read More.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 12,321 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John W. Stanton acquired 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $397.35 per share, with a total value of $1,986,750.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 83,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,339,651.75. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $641.00 price objective (down from $645.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 9th. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $392.00 target price (down from $540.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane reduced their target price on Microsoft from $659.00 to $556.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $577.58.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $420.26 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $391.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $455.12. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $355.67 and a one year high of $555.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.12 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.28, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.38.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The business had revenue of $81.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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).