Phocas Financial Corp. Sells 135 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Phocas Financial Corp. trimmed its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 4,080 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 135 shares during the quarter. Phocas Financial Corp.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,532,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the first quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,496,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. now owns 17,426 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,345,000 after buying an additional 1,268 shares during the last quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 147.9% during the fourth quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 1,748 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $737,000 after buying an additional 1,043 shares during the last quarter. Intellus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $16,075,000. Finally, Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 54,910 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $23,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,014 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

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

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of several research reports. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 price objective (up from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $612.54.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 corporate insiders.

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.