Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. Increases Position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 3.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,003 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 510 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.3% of Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,257,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Newton One Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $44,000. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $62,000. Finally, IFS Advisors LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 50.0% during the first quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 98,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. The trade was a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 54,743 shares of company stock valued at $24,921,913. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $609.86.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2%

MSFT stock opened at $522.04 on Friday. The company's 50 day moving average price is $496.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $438.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.27, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.06. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

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.

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