Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Has $70.90 Million Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC cut its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 142,545 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 12,753 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 1.3% of Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $70,903,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,343,058,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after buying an additional 90,533,328 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth approximately $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,528,950,000 after buying an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $514.60 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $3.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.73, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $512.13 and its 200 day moving average is $464.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This is an increase 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 of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MSFT. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 20th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 price target on the stock in a 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 issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $614.45.

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.