Pachira Investments Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Pachira Investments Inc. lessened its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 13.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,848 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 582 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 1.0% of Pachira Investments Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Pachira Investments Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,458,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in the first quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,496,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. now owns 17,426 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,345,000 after buying an additional 1,268 shares during the last quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 147.9% during the fourth quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 1,748 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $737,000 after buying an additional 1,043 shares during the last quarter. Intellus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $16,075,000. Finally, Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. 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 report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $650.00 target price (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One investment 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $612.54.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of MSFT stock traded up $1.38 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $506.73. 6,242,788 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 22,145,063. The business's fifty day moving average is $509.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $449.32. 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 Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.04.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business 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 $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. 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.