Berkshire Bank Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Berkshire Bank reduced its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,544 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 782 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 4.7% of Berkshire Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Berkshire Bank’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $20,664,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,735,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $612.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $509.23 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $512.01 and a 200-day moving average of $459.93. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.04.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.95 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

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.