Legend Financial Advisors Inc. Purchases New Shares in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Legend Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 138 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $69,000.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, August 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. One equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $618.47.

Microsoft Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $510.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $513.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $471.16. The stock has a market cap of $3.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.46, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.79 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company 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 of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. 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%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a 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 dated 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% 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.

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.