E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB Decreases Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB has decreased its stake in Microsoft Corporation by 3.1%, selling 24,832 shares, while still holding 784,556 shares, which represent about 9.7% of its portfolio.
• CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft, resulting in a 15.87% decrease in his personal stake.
• The company has announced a quarterly dividend increase from $0.83 to $0.91 per share, set to be paid on December 11th.

E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB cut its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 3.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 784,556 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 24,832 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 9.7% of E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB's portfolio, making the stock its largest position. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB's holdings in Microsoft were worth $390,246,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in 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 period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Westpark Capital restated a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $612.54.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock traded up $9.48 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $517.93. The company's stock had a trading volume of 52,313,925 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,095,838. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.97, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $511.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $458.31.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $73.79 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft 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.