Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 6.1%, now owning 72,559 shares valued at approximately $27,238,000.
• Recent transactions show that several institutional investors, including Norges Bank and GAMMA Investing LLC, have significantly increased their stakes in Microsoft, with GAMMA's position growing by over 40,000% in the first quarter.
• Microsoft reported a quarterly EPS of $3.65, surpassing analysts' estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.83 per share set to be paid on September 11th.

Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 6.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 72,559 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 4,175 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 1.4% of Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $27,238,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Friday Financial acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the first quarter worth about $238,000. Jericho Financial LLP boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 13.9% in the first quarter. Jericho Financial LLP now owns 16,947 shares of the software giant's stock worth $6,362,000 after acquiring an additional 2,068 shares in the last quarter. Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.3% in the first quarter. Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC now owns 17,087 shares of the software giant's stock worth $6,414,000 after acquiring an additional 545 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 1,190,110 shares of the software giant's stock worth $446,756,000 after acquiring an additional 3,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crumly & Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 12.6% in the first quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 5,224 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,961,000 after acquiring an additional 585 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on MSFT. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Microsoft from $525.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen raised their price target on Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Loop Capital raised their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $609.86.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded down $9.39 on Friday, reaching $524.11. The company's stock had a trading volume of 28,948,527 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,331,950. The company 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. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $489.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $434.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 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%. The business's revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.95 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 currently 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the insider directly owned 471,036 shares of the company's stock, valued at $204,038,664.12. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total value of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 60,743 shares of company stock valued at $27,520,933. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

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.