Asio Capital LLC Has $11.93 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Asio Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 31,791 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 751 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 2.3% of Asio Capital LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Asio Capital LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,934,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. IFS Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 50.0% in the first quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant's stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $62,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $581.00 price objective (up previously from $512.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $525.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Westpark Capital reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $541.79.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded down $1.65 on Friday, reaching $510.05. The stock had a trading volume of 21,120,811 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,618,181. The business's 50-day moving average price is $477.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $428.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $514.64. The stock has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.04.

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. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. 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 company earned $2.94 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction of $7,330,880.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 98,010 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,906,221.80. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.