Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Purchased by LGT Capital Partners LTD.

LGT Capital Partners LTD. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.0% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 581,398 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,741 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 9.7% of LGT Capital Partners LTD.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. LGT Capital Partners LTD.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $218,251,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Malaga Cove Capital LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 31.4% during the 1st quarter. Malaga Cove Capital LLC now owns 6,541 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,455,000 after acquiring an additional 1,563 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management lifted its position in Microsoft by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 17,393 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,529,000 after acquiring an additional 921 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 9,772 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,668,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the last quarter. Banco Santander S.A. lifted its position in Microsoft by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 736,654 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $276,533,000 after acquiring an additional 63,988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forge First Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth $6,500,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 price objective (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $612.54.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’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 directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $495.00 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.68 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.29, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $509.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $450.60. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

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.