Castleview Partners LLC Sells 804 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Castleview Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 16.0% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,226 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 804 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 1.4% of Castleview Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Castleview Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,102,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth about $18,733,827,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Microsoft by 16.1% in 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 period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 1st 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 hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $524.85 on Thursday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $513.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $469.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. The business’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, equities 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 dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’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 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.47.

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.