Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. Has $949,000 Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,908 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $949,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted 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 worth $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth approximately $18,733,827,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings 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 valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. 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 acquiring an additional 7,314,509 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 14.1% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 49,338,953 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,521,349,000 after acquiring an additional 6,101,005 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $507.49 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02. 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 Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $514.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $497.92.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Microsoft from $675.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $630.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $640.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Arete Research raised their target price on Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $633.59.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction 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 approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.