Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Sold by Live Oak Private Wealth LLC

Live Oak Private Wealth LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 39,987 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,531 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.9% of Live Oak Private Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Live Oak Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $14,916,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Emergent Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 10.2% during the 2nd quarter. Emergent Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,463 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,696,000 after buying an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 28,191 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,988,000 after buying an additional 631 shares during the period. PFG Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. PFG Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,835 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,804,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the period. Firestone Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 7.5% in the second quarter. Firestone Capital Management now owns 9,020 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,365,000 after buying an additional 629 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PYA Waltman Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.1% in the second quarter. PYA Waltman Capital LLC now owns 3,732 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,392,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to approximately 60,000 employees in the U.S., Canada, India and the U.K. The program is aimed at reducing costs and reallocating resources toward artificial intelligence, data centers and other strategic priorities. Investors appear to view the move as a way to help offset the company’s substantial AI infrastructure spending. Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their price targets ahead of earnings. Oppenheimer lifted its target to $625 from $570, while Truist raised its target to $600 from $575 and maintained a Buy rating, citing resilient Azure growth and strong enterprise demand. Oppenheimer raises Microsoft target ahead of earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street expects continued momentum in Azure and Copilot monetization. Microsoft reports fiscal first-quarter results on October 28, making cloud growth, AI demand and spending efficiency important near-term catalysts. Microsoft stock gains as Wall Street sees Azure growth

Microsoft Stock Up 1.5%

Microsoft stock opened at $532.60 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.10. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $349.20 and a fifty-two week high of $553.72. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $508.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $437.18.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.62 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.65 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 19.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 86,525 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total transaction of $43,388,826.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 486,763 shares in the company, valued at $244,092,173.98. This trade represents a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total value of $4,878,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares in the company, valued at $49,007,086.83. This trade represents a 9.05% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 150,314 shares of company stock worth $75,404,992. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Microsoft from $680.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Microsoft from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, Evercore raised shares of Microsoft from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Forty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $594.11.

Microsoft Profile

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops software, cloud services, devices and digital platforms. Its products and services are used by consumers, businesses, governments and educational institutions worldwide.

The company’s principal offerings include the Windows operating system; Microsoft 365 productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook; Azure cloud computing and infrastructure services; Dynamics business applications; and enterprise security solutions.