Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Davis Rea LTD.

Davis Rea LTD. trimmed its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 36.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 17,911 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 10,291 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 3.8% of Davis Rea LTD.'s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Davis Rea LTD.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,549,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in 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 during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 410.4% during the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,890,530,000 after acquiring an additional 49,288 shares during the period. Finally, Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,749 shares of the software giant's stock worth $3,334,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.2 %

MSFT stock traded down $0.90 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $437.27. The stock had a trading volume of 6,249,195 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,175,857. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company's 50-day moving average price is $388.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $411.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.94 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush increased their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $507.77.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at $207,995,413.95. This trade represents a 13.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.