First Heartland Consultants Inc. Lowers Stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

First Heartland Consultants Inc. lowered its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 14,557 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. First Heartland Consultants Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,136,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $44,343,058,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock worth $7,096,913,000 after buying an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 worth $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.8% in the fourth 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 worth $25,273,704,000 after buying an additional 5,370,546 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $515.68.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total transaction of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.01, for a total transaction of $460,010.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 47,058 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,647,150.58. The trade was a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $478.04 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $480.69. The company has a 50-day moving average of $432.29 and a 200 day moving average of $419.32. The firm has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.36.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.66%.

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.

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