Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Purchases 4,063 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. increased its stake in Microsoft Corporation by 2.5%, acquiring an additional 4,063 shares, bringing its total to 165,764 shares valued at approximately $62.23 million.
• Wall Street analysts generally have a positive outlook on Microsoft, with an average price target of $612.54, and most analysts issuing a "Buy" or "Overweight" rating for the stock.
• Microsoft recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.83 per share, which will be paid on September 11th, representing a 0.7% yield based on its current share price.

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. raised its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 165,764 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 4,063 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.2% of Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.'s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $62,226,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. now owns 22,859 shares of the software giant's stock worth $8,581,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 695.8% in the 1st quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 3,452,059 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,295,868,000 after purchasing an additional 3,018,271 shares during the period. Elite Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Elite Wealth Management Inc. now owns 338,701 shares of the software giant's stock worth $127,145,000 after purchasing an additional 21,355 shares during the period. Lauer Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 23.4% in the 1st quarter. Lauer Wealth LLC now owns 2,322 shares of the software giant's stock worth $915,000 after purchasing an additional 441 shares during the period. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 35,616 shares of the software giant's stock worth $13,370,000 after purchasing an additional 670 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $625.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of 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 issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $612.54.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $506.69 on Friday. The company's 50-day moving average is $508.77 and its 200 day moving average is $447.33. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 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 issued its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is 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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