Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC Has $2.93 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 10.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,884 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 550 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.5% of Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,927,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 90,533,328 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter valued at approximately $18,733,827,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth 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. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 14.1% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 49,338,953 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,521,349,000 after acquiring an additional 6,101,005 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MSFT. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.47.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $496.82 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $513.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $492.43. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its 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. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.30 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief executive officer directly 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 192,555 shares of company stock valued at $97,840,842 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Company 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.