Insider Selling: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Insider Sells 38,500 Shares of Stock

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) insider Bradford Smith sold 38,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $2.70 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $514.33. 20,895,874 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,874,750. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $514.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $489.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $3.82 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.58, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.30 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share 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 issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, October 27th. Arete Research boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Melius Research boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $595.00 to $625.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $634.67.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,496,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,290 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $860,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 922,524 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $457,119,000 after acquiring an additional 33,382 shares during the period. Modern Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 39.3% during the 1st quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 144,852 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $54,376,000 after acquiring an additional 40,860 shares during the period. Finally, Well Done LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Well Done LLC now owns 9,911 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,930,000 after acquiring an additional 814 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

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.