McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. Buys 3,404 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 28.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,437 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 3,404 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 7.8% of McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,679,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,735,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSFT. Citigroup raised their price target on Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Mizuho increased their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $612.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $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 is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $510.02 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $511.28 and a 200-day moving average of $456.20.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

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.