Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Purchased by GW Henssler & Associates Ltd.

GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. raised its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 121,970 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 464 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 3.2% of GW Henssler & Associates Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $60,669,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during 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 acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $18,733,827,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% during 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 period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 14.1% in 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James Financial decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $625.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Microsoft from $675.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $634.47.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $496.82 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. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $513.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $492.43. The stock has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 35.71%.The business’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 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 yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 192,555 shares of company stock worth $97,840,842 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.