Cynosure Group LLC Has $3.42 Million Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Cynosure Group LLC lessened its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,110 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 861 shares during the quarter. Cynosure Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,420,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $3,035,987,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 2.6%

MSFT stock opened at $495.00 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $509.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $451.09. The company has a market cap of $3.68 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The business’s revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $612.54.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.