Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Position Lessened by GF Fund Management CO. LTD.

GF Fund Management CO. LTD. decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 753,331 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 11,749 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 6.6% of GF Fund Management CO. LTD.'s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. GF Fund Management CO. LTD.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $282,793,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after buying an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after buying an additional 16,788,816 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock worth $288,336,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $650.00 price target (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Mizuho increased 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $612.54.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $509.77 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $504.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $442.37. The firm has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.37, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.06. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The business 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 period last year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm'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 directly owned 39,111 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,850 shares of company stock worth $4,406,512. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Company 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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