Morse Asset Management Inc Sells 1,697 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Morse Asset Management Inc lowered its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 3.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 45,859 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,697 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 4.3% of Morse Asset Management Inc's investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Morse Asset Management Inc's holdings in Microsoft were worth $17,215,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,496,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. now owns 17,426 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,345,000 after purchasing an additional 1,268 shares in the last quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 147.9% in the 4th quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 1,748 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $737,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043 shares in the last quarter. Intellus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $16,075,000. Finally, Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 54,910 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $23,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,014 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler increased their price objective 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. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $612.54.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Microsoft stock traded up $1.38 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $506.73. 6,242,788 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 22,145,063. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $509.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $449.32. 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $73.79 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.95 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend 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%.

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.