Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stake Decreased by Lakeside Advisors INC.

Lakeside Advisors INC. cut its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 10.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 86,420 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 9,943 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 27.7% of Lakeside Advisors INC.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Lakeside Advisors INC.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $42,986,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth about $18,733,827,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $259,539,471,000 after acquiring an additional 7,314,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 14.1% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 49,338,953 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $18,521,349,000 after buying an additional 6,101,005 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of MSFT opened at $517.81 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.83, a P/E/G 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 quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $513.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $486.83.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion for 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.30 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. 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 given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’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 transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’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 transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Truist Financial increased their price objective 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. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $625.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $634.67.

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.