Skyline Advisors Inc. Sells 302 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Skyline Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 46,890 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 302 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 8.6% of Skyline Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Skyline Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $23,324,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $259,539,471,000 after acquiring an additional 7,314,509 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 168,128,024 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,720,874,000 after acquiring an additional 3,103,212 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,343,058,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the 4th 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’s 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSFT. Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial raised their price target on Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $614.45.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $517.95 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.04. The business has a fifty day moving average of $512.38 and a 200-day moving average of $464.45. 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 (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 company 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%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s 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.