ARK Investment Management LLC Decreases Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

ARK Investment Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 91.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,611 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 27,429 shares during the quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,299,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 5.9% during the second quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $178,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Seek First Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $675,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Level Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,333,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,373,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Onyx Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,108 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,536,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 24th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Arete lifted their price target on Microsoft from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.33.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total value of $75,315,699.90. Following 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $472.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $512.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $498.37.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 is a positive change 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 dividend yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.89%.

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.