Ballast Advisors LLC Has $11.50 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Ballast Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 27,275 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 582 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 3.5% of Ballast Advisors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Ballast Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pecaut & CO. grew its position in Microsoft by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Pecaut & CO. now owns 11,142 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,696,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 619,025 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $260,919,000 after buying an additional 15,879 shares during the period. Absolute Capital Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 41.2% during the fourth quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 5,246 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,215,000 after buying an additional 1,531 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 627,060 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $264,306,000 after buying an additional 7,012 shares during the period. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. grew its position in Microsoft by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 909,060 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $383,168,000 after buying an additional 7,972 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total transaction of $2,599,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,481,631. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 131,743 shares of company stock worth $58,375,673. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT traded up $0.40 on Friday, reaching $459.08. The company had a trading volume of 7,351,179 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,529,499. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $407.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $414.89. The company has a market cap of $3.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.97, a P/E/G 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. 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, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is 25.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. TD Securities upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $513.13.

Microsoft Company 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.