Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Purchased by O Brien Wealth Partners LLC

O Brien Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 80.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,295 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 1,023 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 0.2% of O Brien Wealth Partners LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $862,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 168,128,024 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $70,720,874,000 after buying an additional 3,103,212 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. Northern Trust Corp increased 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, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 59,961,337 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $25,273,704,000 after buying an additional 5,370,546 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.8%

NASDAQ MSFT traded down $3.8540 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $505.9160. The company's stock had a trading volume of 13,218,214 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,237,680. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The company has a market cap of $3.76 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.06. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $504.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $442.37. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share 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 company's quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. 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 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 8,850 shares of company stock valued at $4,406,512 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Wedbush raised their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Benchmark restated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $612.54.

About Microsoft

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.