Sara Bay Financial Decreases Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Sara Bay Financial lessened its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,639 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 32 shares during the period. Sara Bay Financial’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $815,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bulwark Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Newton One Investments LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 66.7% in the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James Financial increased their price target on Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Loop Capital raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $618.47.

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 shares were sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total value of $75,315,699.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $528.57 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $513.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $468.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.75, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year 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 for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The business had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This is an increase 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%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

Microsoft Company 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.