Abner Herrman & Brock LLC Trims Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Abner Herrman & Brock LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 76,729 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 627 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 4.3% of Abner Herrman & Brock LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Abner Herrman & Brock LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $38,166,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Newton One Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. IFS Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 155.7% during the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Raymond James Financial increased their price objective on Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $612.54.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $508.45 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $511.42 and a 200 day moving average of $457.02. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.79 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.