Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA Increases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 184,761 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 852 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 4.7% of Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA's holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA's holdings in Microsoft were worth $69,522,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,000,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $1,375,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $650.00 target price (up from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Microsoft from $525.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. One research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $612.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 39,111 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold 8,850 shares of company stock valued at $4,406,512 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $509.77 on Wednesday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $504.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $442.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.06. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The company's revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued 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 dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio 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.

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