Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Empirical Asset Management LLC’s 4th Largest Position

Empirical Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,167 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,264 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 2.0% of Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,550,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $259,539,471,000 after acquiring an additional 7,314,509 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. 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 valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 3.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,306,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 9.8% in the fourth 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 worth $25,273,704,000 after purchasing an additional 5,370,546 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total value of $75,315,699.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This trade represents 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, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% 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 company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. DA Davidson set a $650.00 target price on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Redburn Partners set a $560.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $633.59.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.4%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $510.18 on Friday. 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 Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a 50-day moving average of $514.26 and a 200 day moving average of $495.92. The firm has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.89%.

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.