Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Holdings Decreased by Kera Capital Partners Inc.

Kera Capital Partners Inc. decreased its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 41.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,630 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 6,834 shares during the quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,790,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $44,343,058,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position 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 worth $17,528,950,000 after acquiring an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew 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 purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth 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. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $509.04 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. 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's 50-day simple moving average is $511.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $455.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released 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. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion for 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 company's revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is a boost from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.34%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Westpark Capital restated a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $612.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

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

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.