Grimes & Company Inc. Reduces Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Grimes & Company Inc. lowered its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 165,170 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,166 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.2% of Grimes & Company Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $82,157,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.4% in the first quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,496,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.6% in the first quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,290 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $860,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its position in Microsoft by 3.8% in the second quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 922,524 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $457,119,000 after buying an additional 33,382 shares during the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 39.3% in the first quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 144,852 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $54,376,000 after buying an additional 40,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Well Done LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 8.9% in the second quarter. Well Done LLC now owns 9,911 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,930,000 after buying an additional 814 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of MSFT opened at $531.52 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.97, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $511.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $483.46.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Microsoft from $680.00 to $682.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $617.41.

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.