Ridgewood Investments LLC Purchases 144 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Ridgewood Investments LLC grew its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 6,367 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.4% of Ridgewood Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Ridgewood Investments LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,167,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Newton One Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Bulwark Capital Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’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 approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, 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 insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Mizuho raised their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Microsoft from $582.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $617.63.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $515.74 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company 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 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 issued its quarterly 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. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The business had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.34%.

Microsoft 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.