Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Purchased by Ascent Capital Management LLC

Ascent Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,912 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 2.6% of Ascent Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Ascent Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,941,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,290 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $860,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its stake in Microsoft by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 922,524 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $457,119,000 after acquiring an additional 33,382 shares in the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 39.3% during the 1st quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 144,852 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $54,376,000 after acquiring an additional 40,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Well Done LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Well Done LLC now owns 9,911 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,930,000 after acquiring an additional 814 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price objective (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp raised shares of Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $618.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $510.96 on Monday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $3.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.46, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $513.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $472.29. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts forecast 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 given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 24.34%.

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.