West Branch Capital LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

West Branch Capital LLC reduced its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 55,393 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 281 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 8.1% of West Branch Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $27,553,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the second 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 buying an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter valued at about $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after buying an additional 46,579,693 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $259,539,471,000 after purchasing an additional 7,314,509 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $640.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.47.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 2.2%

MSFT stock opened at $510.96 on Monday. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a market cap of $3.80 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $513.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $472.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results 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. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The business had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Microsoft 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.