Ellsworth Advisors LLC Has $5.97 Million Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Ellsworth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 5.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,915 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 763 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 1.6% of Ellsworth Advisors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Ellsworth Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,343,058,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock worth $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $650.00 price target (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp raised shares of Microsoft from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $630.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $612.54.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8%

Microsoft stock opened at $509.90 on Monday. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.04. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $510.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $454.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35.

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

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.

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