Willow Creek Wealth Management Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Willow Creek Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,252 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the period. Willow Creek Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,115,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Newton One Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Bulwark Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. Bank of America lifted their price target on Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $625.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Melius Research lifted their price target on Microsoft from $595.00 to $625.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $618.47.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $513.57 on Wednesday. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $512.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $473.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.82 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted 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 business had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The business’s revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate 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 paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was 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 $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.