Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas Makes New $233.43 Million Investment in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 482,677 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $233,432,000. Microsoft accounts for about 8.7% of Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas’ portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Munro Partners grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Munro Partners now owns 384,475 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $185,940,000 after purchasing an additional 38,072 shares during the last quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd increased its position in Microsoft by 37.1% during the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 2,703,988 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,307,703,000 after purchasing an additional 731,308 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 7,429.0% during the fourth quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,107,445 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $539,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,092,736 shares during the last quarter. Torque Asset Management LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Torque Asset Management LLC now owns 48,527 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $23,469,000 after purchasing an additional 3,701 shares during the last quarter. Finally, L2 Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. L2 Asset Management LLC now owns 38,101 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $18,426,000 after purchasing an additional 2,883 shares in the last quarter. 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: 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Microsoft from $392.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, May 4th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $575.00 to $505.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Microsoft from $595.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 1st. They set a “market outperform” rating on the stock. Forty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $561.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total value of $519,111.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 23,762 shares of company stock valued at $10,508,361 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $393.83 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $356.28 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The company has a market cap 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 quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $412.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $427.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $82.89 billion for 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given 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 presently 21.67%.

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).