Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Position Boosted by ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V.

ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,002,512 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,704 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 6.5% of ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V.’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $498,629,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the first quarter valued at approximately $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $17,528,950,000 after acquiring an additional 46,579,693 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the first 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 in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2%

MSFT opened at $517.66 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. The company has a fifty day moving average of $511.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $478.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.95, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 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 analysts’ expectations of $73.79 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.95 earnings per share. The firm’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, research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Arete raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $618.97.

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.