Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Blair William & Co. IL’s Largest Position

Blair William & Co. IL lowered its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,696,704 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 69,498 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 5.1% of Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,838,778,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Bulwark Capital Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Newton One Investments LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 66.7% in the 1st quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp raised its stake in Microsoft by 29.9% during the 2nd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 126 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.2%

Microsoft stock opened at $517.03 on Tuesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market cap of $3.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $514.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $489.41.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted 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 firm 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%. The company’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.30 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $625.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. HSBC increased their price target on Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus 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.