Cadent Capital Advisors LLC Has $1.95 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Cadent Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,930 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Cadent Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,954,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Newton One Investments LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 66.7% in the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Bulwark Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $625.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. One equities research 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.47.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $522.40 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.88 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.30, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.03. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $513.39 and its 200 day moving average is $470.36. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.95 EPS. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. 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 a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Microsoft Company 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.