Summary: Microsoft's value is being hit again, this time by Barclays; many Microsoft executives choose to sell their stakes at Microsoft as its value approaches new lows

"For a hedged play on this stock, look at a Jan '11 24 covered call for a net debit in the $22.54 area. That is also the break even stock price for this trade," quotes Chips B. Malroy from here. Microsoft is again in $23 territories, very close to its 52-week low.

Malroy also shares this news article about Barclays -- not just Credit Suisse and S&P (Standard & Poor’s) -- giving Microsoft a knockdown. The latest goes like this:

Barclays analyst says, "We believe Microsoft is most exposed to slowing PC demand given its Windows and Office exposure. For FY11, we now forecast Windows & Windows Live revenue growth of 9%, slightly above our PC unit shipment growth expectation of 8% over the same period, but down from our mid teens prior expectation. We now forecast FY11 total revenue of $68.9 billion and EPS of $2.39, down from our prior estimates of $70.2 billion and $2.44."

This was also covered by the booster of Microsoft's stock, Eric Savitz. What can he say?

MSFT is down 30 cents, or 1.2%, to $23.99.

From the same site we learn that Kevin Turner (COO) is getting out of Microsoft, investments-wise. Malroy has been showing us for several days now (see IRC logs) that almost all executives of Microsoft are dumping their shares.

B. Kevin Turner, chief operating officer of Microsoft, sold 141,407 shares for an average price of $24.29 each on Sept. 3.

After the sale, he held 460,088 shares. His stake remains far less than 1% of Microsoft's outstanding shares.

The number of shares Turner sold were equal to the number of performance shares from earlier grants that vested on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, less the shares he sold to cover the exercise price.

Microsoft declined to comment on the sale.

Combined with executive departures like this new one, one has to wonder what they think about the future of this company. ⬆