Cove Street Capital LLC Cuts Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Cove Street Capital LLC decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 600 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 80 shares during the quarter. Cove Street Capital LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $225,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Newton One Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 66.7% during the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. IFS Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 50.0% during the first quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8%

MSFT opened at $509.90 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a market capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.38, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $510.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $453.82.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $612.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

About Microsoft

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.