Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s 2nd Largest Position

Appleton Partners Inc. MA decreased its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 118,307 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 4,009 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 4.2% of Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $58,847,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Headland Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.0% in the second quarter. Headland Capital LLC now owns 16,989 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,450,000 after purchasing an additional 803 shares in the last quarter. Fishman Jay A Ltd. MI increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the second quarter. Fishman Jay A Ltd. MI now owns 152,612 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $75,911,000 after purchasing an additional 1,205 shares in the last quarter. PUREfi Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.8% in the second quarter. PUREfi Wealth LLC now owns 10,419 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,183,000 after purchasing an additional 933 shares in the last quarter. Petros Family Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the second quarter. Petros Family Wealth LLC now owns 9,001 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,477,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vantage Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 22.0% in the second quarter. Vantage Investment Partners LLC now owns 118,460 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $58,923,000 after purchasing an additional 21,324 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 $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. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of MSFT opened at $531.52 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap 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 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 fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $511.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $483.46.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.34%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price 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.