Pathway Financial Advisers LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,772 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 278 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 1.3% of Pathway Financial Advisers LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,668,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,000,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $1,375,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Down 2.6%

Microsoft stock opened at $495.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.68 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.29, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $509.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $450.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on MSFT. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Microsoft from $530.00 to $582.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush increased their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $612.54.

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.