Microsoft Stake Reduced by Institutional Investor Cannell & Spears LLC

Cannell & Spears LLC, an institutional investor, reduced its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by selling 90,734 shares in the first quarter. According to a recent SEC filing, Cannell & Spears LLC owned 656,452 shares of Microsoft's stock after the sale, which accounts for 4.8% of their investment portfolio.

The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for its latest quarter, beating analysts' expectations by $0.50. Revenue reached $90.01 billion, a 17.7% increase from the same period last year. Microsoft's datacenter spending is expected to remain disciplined, according to Bernstein, which raised its price target for Microsoft to $660.

Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of Microsoft's stock. Insider sales have been significant in recent months, with CEO Judson Althoff selling 10,000 shares on August 5th and EVP Takeshi Numoto selling 4,810 shares on August 4th.