Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Stake Lowered by Provident Wealth Management LLC

Provident Wealth Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,463 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 251 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 0.4% of Provident Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Provident Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,225,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.7% during the second quarter. Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp now owns 41,295 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,541,000 after buying an additional 1,840 shares during the period. Midwest Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Midwest Financial Group LLC now owns 9,407 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,679,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the period. Victrix Investment Advisors boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 13.4% during the second quarter. Victrix Investment Advisors now owns 18,252 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,079,000 after buying an additional 2,159 shares during the period. Brueske Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.6% during the second quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC now owns 14,605 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,265,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the period. Finally, Sicart Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 21.2% during the second quarter. Sicart Associates LLC now owns 1,122 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $558,000 after buying an additional 196 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.97.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $513.58 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.82 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $511.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $477.00.

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. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s dividend 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.