Arete Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 30.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 51,019 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 11,849 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 1.6% of Arete Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $21,542,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its position in Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its position in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. United Bank lifted its position in Microsoft by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 18,378 shares of the software giant's stock worth $7,908,000 after buying an additional 730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stansberry Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stansberry Asset Management LLC now owns 45,695 shares of the software giant's stock worth $19,663,000 after buying an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Benchmark restated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $513.59.
Read Our Latest Research Report on Microsoft
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total transaction of $32,703,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
Microsoft Price Performance
Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $470.38 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $417.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $416.68. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $473.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.66%.
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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