Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Position Lessened by Whitcomb & Hess Inc.

Whitcomb & Hess Inc. lessened its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,855 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 48 shares during the period. Whitcomb & Hess Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $923,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. McLean Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 13,467 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,614,000 after purchasing an additional 537 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co of the South raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Co of the South now owns 19,321 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,610,000 after acquiring an additional 454 shares during the period. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC now owns 9,879 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,861,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the period. Michael S. Ryan Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Michael S. Ryan Inc. now owns 2,857 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,421,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Finally, McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 28.3% in the 2nd quarter. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. now owns 15,437 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,679,000 after acquiring an additional 3,404 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $510.02 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $511.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $456.20. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the 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 directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 target price (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a 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 report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price objective (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $612.54.

Microsoft 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.