Chelsea Counsel Co. Sells 670 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Chelsea Counsel Co. cut its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,880 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 670 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 4.9% of Chelsea Counsel Co.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Chelsea Counsel Co.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,964,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Main Line Retirement Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 3.6% during the first quarter. Main Line Retirement Advisors LLC now owns 2,727 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,024,000 after buying an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. MBL Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. MBL Wealth LLC now owns 19,417 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,289,000 after buying an additional 1,084 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,868,696 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $701,458,000 after buying an additional 14,653 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 91,736 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $34,437,000 after buying an additional 6,658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. now owns 86,036 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $32,297,000 after purchasing an additional 582 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $612.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares of the company's stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $509.90 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.38, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $510.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $454.62. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.

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