Index Fund Advisors Inc. Sells 2,056 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Index Fund Advisors Inc. lowered its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 35.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,771 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 2,056 shares during the quarter. Index Fund Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,416,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fosun International Ltd grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Fosun International Ltd now owns 6,633 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,490,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Alliance Wealth Management Group grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group now owns 5,617 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,368,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Guidance Point Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Guidance Point Advisors LLC now owns 4,294 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,811,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Life Planning Partners Inc grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Life Planning Partners Inc now owns 540 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $228,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Finally, Core Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Core Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,856 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $782,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an "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. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Benchmark restated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $612.54.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.4%

MSFT opened at $502.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $507.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $445.58. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.06.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.95 EPS. The business's revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,850 shares of company stock worth $4,406,512. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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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