Funds Sell Microsoft

A number of large fund companies reduced their holdings of Microsoft during the second quarter, according to LionShares.com, a website that provides data on companies' stock holdings. Fidelity Investments of Boston sold 66 million shares, leaving it 119 million. This was the largest position change in Microsoft in the second quarter.

American Century Investment of Kansas City, Mo. cut its shares by 19.7 million, to 21.8 million. The third largest cut was by Janus Capital Corp. of Denver. It dropped 18.1 million shares, reducing its holdings to 20.6 million. AIM Management Group and Deutsche Bank/ BT Asset Management each cut approximately 13 million shares of the stock.

Lincoln Capital Management, Jennison Associates, Oppenheimer Funds, Putnam Investments, Merrill Lynch, T. Rowe Price, and Goldman Sachs also sold shares of the stock in the second quarter. During the quarter, a federal court ruled that Microsoft had to be split into two separate entities.

Some other companies increased their holdings of Microsoft in the same period. Barclays Global Investors, the largest Microsoft shareholder as of June 30, with 154.7 million, added 7.38 million in the second quarter. Vanguard Group of Valley Forge added 1.47 million shares, Alliance-Equitable of New York added 4.56 million and Smith Barney Asset Management of New York added 6.27 million shares, according to LionShares.com.

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Money Management Executive
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