Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Acquired by Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,573 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 618 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 1.1% of Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,741,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 7,314,509 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Microsoft by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 62,267,822 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,374,718,000 after acquiring an additional 2,306,485 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 59,961,337 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,273,704,000 after acquiring an additional 5,370,546 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America boosted their price target on Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Arete boosted their price target on Microsoft from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $634.67.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $517.81 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $513.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $488.36. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.The company’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. 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 an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.