Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stock Position Cut by Boston Common Asset Management LLC

Boston Common Asset Management LLC cut its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 151,459 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 4,409 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 2.1% of Boston Common Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Boston Common Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $75,337,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after buying an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the first quarter worth $18,733,827,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $259,539,471,000 after buying an additional 7,314,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 14.1% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 49,338,953 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,521,349,000 after buying an additional 6,101,005 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft 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 owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Saturday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $617.44.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $523.61 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.39, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $511.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $481.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.79 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.