Metropolis Capital Ltd Sells 240,213 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Metropolis Capital Ltd reduced its Microsoft shares by 240,213, representing a 23.3% decrease, currently holding a total of 790,475 shares valued at approximately $393 million.
• Multiple hedge funds have significantly increased their Microsoft holdings, with Kingstone Capital Partners boosting theirs by an astonishing 564,387.1%, acquiring more than 90 million shares.
• Analysts have set high price targets for Microsoft stock, with recent upgrades from firms like TD Cowen and Bank of America raising their targets to $640, indicating a strong investor sentiment with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."

Metropolis Capital Ltd decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 23.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 790,475 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 240,213 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 12.5% of Metropolis Capital Ltd's holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Metropolis Capital Ltd's holdings in Microsoft were worth $393,190,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant's stock worth $45,040,162,000 after buying an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock worth $17,528,950,000 after buying an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant's stock worth $259,539,471,000 after buying an additional 7,314,509 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on MSFT. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Melius Research increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $595.00 to $625.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $618.97.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $517.66 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $511.49 and a 200-day moving average of $478.38. The company has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.95, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. 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 data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion during 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This is a positive change from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft's payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company 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.

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