Hedge Funds Are Selling Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), Should You?

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has seen some intriguing activity from the smart money of late, and while investors tend to pay attention to other investment indicators first, we at Insider Monkey have found it’s important to watch hedge fund sentiment. Hedge funds’ best small-cap picks have historically beaten the market by 18 percentage points annually for over a decade, and since we started sharing this strategy with the public, it’s up on the S&P 500 by more than 20 percentage points in just six months (see how to use this yourself).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the recent action surrounding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), while also keeping an eye on what corporate insiders have been doing for good measure (learn why here).

Hedge fund activity in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 95 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -12% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, some notable hedge fund managers were upping their stakes considerably.

Neil Chriss increased his stake by a total of 1159%, the largest of the funds we track. Arrowstreet Capital and Tudor Investment Corp were also increasing their holdings, while Mason Hawkins and Glenn Russell Dubin established new positions in the stock.

All in all, Donald Yacktman held the largest position, ahead of peers Jean-Marie Eveillard, Boykin Curry, and Ken Fisher.

Insider trading activity in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Since the start of 2013, Microsoft Corporation has seen 0 insider purchases and 8 insider sales.

The latest insider purchase we have on record was a buy of 17,500 shares at an average price of $28.72 a piece. J Stephen Luczo made this transaction, and now holds 133,500 shares after the move.

Likewise, the most recent insider sale came with F David Marquardt’s transaction of 22,222 shares at an average price of $28.02.

With the results demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is no exception.

Click here to learn more about Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund Newsletter

Insider Monkey’s small-cap strategy returned 29.2% between September 2012 and February 2013 versus 8.7% for the S&P 500 index. Try it now by clicking the link above.

Disclosure: none