Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Purchased by Maryland Capital Advisors Inc.

Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 34.3% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,283 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 328 shares during the quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $638,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Guided Capital Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the second quarter. Guided Capital Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,405 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,688,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Birchbrook Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the first quarter. Birchbrook Inc. now owns 6,326 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,375,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Fosun International Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the first quarter. Fosun International Ltd now owns 6,633 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,490,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gagnon Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.5% during the first quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC now owns 704 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $264,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares in the company, valued at $399,206,272.56. This represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on MSFT. Melius Research upped their target price on Microsoft from $595.00 to $625.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 target price (up from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush increased their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $617.63.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $515.74 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 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 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $512.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $465.70.

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. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current 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 given a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s 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.