Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stake Increased by Hofer & Associates. Inc

Hofer & Associates. Inc increased its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,286 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 124 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 1.3% of Hofer & Associates. Inc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Hofer & Associates. Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,132,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the first quarter worth $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings 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 worth $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $259,539,471,000 after purchasing an additional 7,314,509 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $617.63.

Insider Transactions 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 stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $517.35 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $512.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $467.17.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, 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. 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 yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

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.