Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Capital International Sarl's 3rd Largest Position

Capital International Sarl raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 531,993 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 43,064 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 5.2% of Capital International Sarl's portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Capital International Sarl's holdings in Microsoft were worth $224,235,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 471.4% in the 4th quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 5,812,933 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,366,153,000 after purchasing an additional 4,795,536 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 76.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant's stock worth $4,439,407,000 after purchasing an additional 4,568,539 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 471,036 shares in the company, valued at $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. Wall Street Zen cut Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday. Barclays lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Westpark Capital reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $515.68.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $1.10 on Tuesday, reaching $478.04. The company's stock had a trading volume of 15,377,602 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,494,188. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $432.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $419.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.94, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $480.69.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.94 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid 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 0.69%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

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.