Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Holdings Trimmed by MJP Associates Inc. ADV

MJP Associates Inc. ADV trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 7.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,797 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,874 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 1.5% of MJP Associates Inc. ADV's investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. MJP Associates Inc. ADV's holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,558,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,000,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $1,375,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler lifted their target price 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. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $612.54.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.9%

Microsoft stock opened at $506.74 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $507.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $446.00.

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. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business's revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,850 shares of company stock worth $4,406,512. 0.03% of the stock is 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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