Blossom Wealth Management Sells 601 Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Key Points

• Blossom Wealth Management sold 601 shares of Microsoft, reducing its holding by 13.3%, and now owns 3,912 shares, representing about 3.0% of its investment portfolio.
• Microsoft has received several analyst rating upgrades, with target prices raised to as high as $650.00 and a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" among analysts.
• The company will pay a quarterly dividend of $0.83 per share on September 11th, reflecting a 0.6% dividend yield and a payout ratio of 24.34%.

Blossom Wealth Management reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 13.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,912 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 601 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 3.0% of Blossom Wealth Management's investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Blossom Wealth Management's holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 168,128,024 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $70,720,874,000 after acquiring an additional 3,103,212 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,343,058,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 59,961,337 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $25,273,704,000 after acquiring an additional 5,370,546 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at $61,208,127.76. The trade was a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 60,743 shares of company stock valued at $27,520,933. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Wedbush lifted their target price on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $609.86.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $524.11 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.42, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $489.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $434.88. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Microsoft's payout ratio is 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.

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