Gradient Investments LLC Has $135.99 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Gradient Investments LLC trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 273,393 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,950 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 2.5% of Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $135,988,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after buying an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $517.93 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The company’s 50-day moving average is $511.71 and its 200 day moving average is $457.92. The company has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS 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 company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.95 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. 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. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a positive change 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price objective (up from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 price objective (up from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial upped 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. One investment 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $612.54.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the 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 directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’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 transaction, 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. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.