Equitable Trust Co. Purchases 2,540 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Equitable Trust Co. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 132,078 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,540 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.3% of Equitable Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $65,697,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth about $18,733,827,000. Northern Trust Corp raised 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. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $259,539,471,000 after buying an additional 7,314,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 14.1% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 49,338,953 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,521,349,000 after buying an additional 6,101,005 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Wolfe Research set a $675.00 target price on Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $682.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $675.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Evercore ISI set a $640.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.47.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.5%

MSFT stock opened at $508.68 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.18, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $513.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $494.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.The company had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.30 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.91 dividend. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

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.