Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Position Reduced by S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC

S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC lessened its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,101 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,739 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 4.1% of S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $12,983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 40,290.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total value 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. 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 owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $517.93 on Friday. 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 one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $511.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $457.92. The company has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp raised Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 target price (up from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen raised their target price on Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush raised their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $612.54.

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.