HM Payson & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 6.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 833,386 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 52,373 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 5.5% of HM Payson & Co.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. HM Payson & Co.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $312,845,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.4% in the first quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,496,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. grew its stake in Microsoft by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant's stock worth $133,023,000 after purchasing an additional 18,052 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. now owns 17,426 shares of the software giant's stock worth $7,345,000 after purchasing an additional 1,268 shares in the last quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 147.9% in the fourth quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 1,748 shares of the software giant's stock worth $737,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intellus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $16,075,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Insider Activity
In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold 8,850 shares of company stock worth $4,406,512 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup lifted their price target on Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Guggenheim reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Westpark Capital reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $612.54.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on MSFT
Microsoft Stock Performance
Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $505.72 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $504.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $442.81. The company has a market cap of $3.76 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.06. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The business's revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 24.34%.
About Microsoft
(
Free Report)
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.
Further Reading
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