SJS Investment Consulting Inc. Decreases Stake in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• SJS Investment Consulting Inc. reduced its stake in Microsoft Corporation by 16.6% during the second quarter, resulting in ownership of 7,434 shares valued at approximately $3.7 million.
• Executive Vice President Takeshi Numoto and CEO Satya Nadella both recently sold shares, with Nadella's sale amounting to over $75 million, indicating significant insider trading activity.
• Microsoft increased its quarterly dividend from $0.83 to $0.91, reflecting a commitment to returning capital to shareholders, with the next payment scheduled for December 11th.

SJS Investment Consulting Inc. lowered its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 16.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,434 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,477 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 0.6% of SJS Investment Consulting Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. SJS Investment Consulting Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,698,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Newton One Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 66.7% in the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Bulwark Capital Corp bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% in the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant's stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 39,111 shares of the company's stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wedbush boosted their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $617.63.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.3%

MSFT opened at $517.35 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.03. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $512.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $467.74. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft's payout ratio 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.