Prakash Investment Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Prakash Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 7,121 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $3,001,000. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.0% of Prakash Investment Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,204,664,000 after buying an additional 49,735 shares in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,890,530,000 after purchasing an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on MSFT. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $472.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $435.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $493.89.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT traded down $0.69 on Monday, reaching $391.16. 16,533,069 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,150,692. The company's 50-day moving average price is $384.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $411.17. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.49, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

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.