Focused Investors LLC Has $157.53 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Focused Investors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 316,700 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 6,800 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 5.2% of Focused Investors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Focused Investors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $157,530,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. First Financial Group Corp increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. First Financial Group Corp now owns 17,332 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,622,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. High Note Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.5% during the second quarter. High Note Wealth LLC now owns 21,850 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,868,000 after buying an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the second quarter. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 21,487 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,671,000 after buying an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 25.9% during the second quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 349,437 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $173,813,000 after buying an additional 71,920 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prasad Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% during the second quarter. Prasad Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,757 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,340,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating 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 report on Monday, August 18th. Guggenheim raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Microsoft from $682.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.67.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $525.76 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $513.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $485.93. The company has a market capitalization of $3.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 33.47%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.30 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.