Hartford Investment Management Co. Reduces Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Hartford Investment Management Co. reduced its position in Microsoft Corporation by 1.2%, holding 448,371 shares after selling 5,228 shares in the second quarter.
• Multiple research firms have revised their price targets for Microsoft, with Piper Sandler increasing theirs to $650.00 and most firms maintaining an "overweight" or "buy" rating.
• Microsoft increased its quarterly dividend from $0.83 to $0.91 per share, which will be paid on December 11th to investors of record as of November 20th.

Hartford Investment Management Co. trimmed its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 448,371 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 5,228 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 7.1% of Hartford Investment Management Co.'s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Hartford Investment Management Co.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $223,024,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Newton One Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 66.7% in the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Bulwark Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant's stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup upped their price objective on Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $618.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm'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 value of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company's stock, 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 currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $522.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.03. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $513.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $470.36. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This is a boost from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

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.

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