Diligent Investors LLC Sells 31,437 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Diligent Investors LLC lowered its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 58.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,971 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 31,437 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 2.6% of Diligent Investors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Diligent Investors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,928,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Signature Wealth Management Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Signature Wealth Management Partners LLC now owns 9,433 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,692,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Yoder Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 13.6% during the 2nd quarter. Yoder Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,806 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,893,000 after acquiring an additional 455 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 40,071 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $19,932,000 after acquiring an additional 656 shares in the last quarter. Tilia Fiduciary Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Tilia Fiduciary Partners Inc. now owns 13,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,542,000 after acquiring an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Onyx Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,108 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,536,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. DA Davidson raised their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Redburn Partners set a $560.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America raised their price target on Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $617.44.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $523.61 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. The business’s 50 day moving average is $511.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $481.83. The company has a market capitalization of $3.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 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.