Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. Grows Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its stake in Microsoft by 63.9%, acquiring an additional 120,244 shares, bringing its total holdings to 308,479 shares valued at approximately $115.8 million.
• Analyst price targets for Microsoft have been largely positive, with Scotiabank raising its target to $650 and multiple other firms also adjusting their targets upward, reflecting strong confidence in the stock's performance.
• Microsoft has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.83 per share, which will be paid on September 11th, representing an annualized yield of 0.7% and indicating a payout ratio of 24.34%.

Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 63.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 308,479 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 120,244 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 1.6% of Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $115,823,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock worth $288,336,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Truist Financial raised their price objective 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 price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $612.54.

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 stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of MSFT stock traded down $2.95 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $506.69. 20,949,937 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,697,436. The stock has a market cap of $3.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.06. The stock's fifty day moving average is $508.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $447.59. 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 current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.95 EPS. Microsoft's revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

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.