Sarasin & Partners LLP Sells 22,285 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Sarasin & Partners LLP cut its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,099,280 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 22,285 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 10.4% of Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,044,203,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. Fosun International Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the first quarter. Fosun International Ltd now owns 6,633 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,490,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Birchbrook Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the first quarter. Birchbrook Inc. now owns 6,326 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,375,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.5% during the first quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC now owns 704 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $264,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group now owns 5,617 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,368,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guidance Point Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Guidance Point Advisors LLC now owns 4,294 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup raised their price objective on Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Microsoft from $525.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $612.54.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’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 transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value 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. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $510.15 on Thursday. The company has a market cap 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 two-hundred day simple moving average of $460.28. 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 fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.