Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC Cuts Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC cut its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,688 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 39 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 0.6% of Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $840,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $510.15 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $512.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $460.28.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results 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. 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 analysts’ expectations of $73.79 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.95 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 20th. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $612.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This trade represents 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.

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.