Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Prairie Sky Financial Group LLC

Prairie Sky Financial Group LLC trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 16.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,911 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,824 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 3.8% of Prairie Sky Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Prairie Sky Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,919,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% in the second quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $178,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Seek First Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the second quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $675,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Level Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,333,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Red Mountain Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during 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 stake in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Onyx Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,108 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,536,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Microsoft from $650.00 to $625.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Melius Research upped their target price on Microsoft from $595.00 to $625.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Arete Research lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $634.47.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $511.14 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $514.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $495.03. The company has a market cap of $3.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.35, 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.30 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. 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.