Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC Sells 745 Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 38,766 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 745 shares during the quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $14,553,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock worth $17,528,950,000 after acquiring an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock worth $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush raised their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $609.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total value of $5,985,968.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 43,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,481,631. The trade was a 23.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 54,743 shares of company stock worth $24,921,913 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of MSFT traded down $8.66 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $520.58. The stock had a trading volume of 19,581,882 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,287,656. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $499.37 and a 200 day moving average of $439.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $3.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.06. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.95 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

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.