Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Chesley Taft & Associates LLC

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC decreased its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 231,664 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,224 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 5.1% of Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings, making the stock its largest position. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $115,232,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,496,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,290 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $860,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 39.3% during the 1st quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 144,852 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $54,376,000 after acquiring an additional 40,860 shares during the last quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 147.9% during the 4th quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 1,748 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $737,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 8.3% during the 1st quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 86,477 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $32,463,000 after acquiring an additional 6,617 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen upped their price objective 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. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $612.54.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $510.15 on Thursday. 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 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.40, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $512.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $460.28.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released 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. 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 quarterly revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. 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 a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.