Clune & Associates LTD. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 4,584 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $1,932,000.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock worth $7,096,913,000 after acquiring an additional 16,788,816 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 76.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,439,407,000 after purchasing an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after purchasing an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $1,116,940,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several research firms have weighed in on MSFT. DA Davidson upped their target price on Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen raised Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Tigress Financial upped 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Microsoft from $472.00 to $482.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $513.13.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Microsoft
Microsoft Trading Up 0.0%
NASDAQ MSFT traded up $0.09 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $458.77. 34,758,620 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,504,528. The business's 50 day moving average is $409.00 and its 200-day moving average is $415.17. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.94 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft
In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 98,010 shares in the company, valued at $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 471,036 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $204,038,664.12. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 131,743 shares of company stock valued at $58,375,673 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
About Microsoft
(
Free Report)
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.
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