Verum Partners LLC Raises Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Key Points

• Verum Partners LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 8.9% during Q2, holding now 8,688 shares worth approximately $4.32 million.
• Multiple hedge funds made substantial adjustments to their Microsoft investments, with Kingstone Capital Partners increasing its position by 564,387.1% during the same quarter.
• Microsoft's quarterly earnings exceeded analysts' expectations, posting an EPS of $3.65 and revenue of $76.44 billion, along with a newly announced dividend increase to $0.91 per share.

Verum Partners LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,688 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 713 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.0% of Verum Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Verum Partners LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,322,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant's stock worth $45,040,162,000 after purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock worth $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant's stock worth $259,539,471,000 after purchasing an additional 7,314,509 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MSFT. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Westpark Capital reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Arete lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. One 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, Microsoft presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $618.47.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.9%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $523.98 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The firm's fifty day moving average is $513.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $469.08.

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 company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. Microsoft's quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This is a positive change from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft's payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total value of $75,315,699.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company's stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.

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