Microsoft Corporation $MSFT is Means Investment CO. Inc.’s 5th Largest Position

Means Investment CO. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 100,649 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 425 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 4.7% of Means Investment CO. Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Means Investment CO. Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $50,064,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. PMV Capital Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% in the second quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Seek First Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $675,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Level Financial Advisors boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,333,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Red Mountain Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the second quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,373,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Onyx Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Onyx Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,108 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,536,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. HSBC upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Arete Research boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.47.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was 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 directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Insiders have sold 192,555 shares of company stock valued at $97,840,842 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $496.82 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $513.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $491.56. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released 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 analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. 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 firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.