Perpetual Ltd Acquires 36,412 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Perpetual Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 8.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 464,765 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 36,412 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.7% of Perpetual Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Perpetual Ltd's holdings in Microsoft were worth $231,179,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 6.4% during the second quarter. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,756 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,863,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% during the second quarter. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. now owns 10,902 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,423,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares during the period. Kapstone Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 5.5% during the second quarter. Kapstone Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,443 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,195,000 after acquiring an additional 544 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its holdings in Microsoft by 17.3% during the second quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 323,092 shares of the software giant's stock worth $160,619,000 after acquiring an additional 47,700 shares during the period. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant's stock worth $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related 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 transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total value of $75,315,699.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $650.00 target price (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $625.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, August 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $614.45.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.9%

MSFT opened at $511.46 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $3.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.50, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $512.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $463.19.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. This is a boost from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. 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.

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