Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Purchased by Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.

Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 17,115 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 613 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 3.5% of Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,513,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. PMV Capital Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $178,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Seek First Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $675,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Level Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,333,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Red Mountain Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the second quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,373,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Onyx Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,108 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,536,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on MSFT. Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 11th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Arete Research upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $634.47.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. This represents 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 available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following 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 is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 192,555 shares of company stock valued at $97,840,842 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $496.82 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.34, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02. 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $513.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $492.43.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. 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 yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.89%.

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.