Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Reduced by Howard Capital Management Group LLC

Howard Capital Management Group LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 0.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 193,216 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,077 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 5.6% of Howard Capital Management Group LLC's holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Howard Capital Management Group LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $72,531,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,000,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $1,375,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. TD Securities boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer raised Microsoft from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $600.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Guggenheim reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $541.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total value of $5,985,968.43. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,481,631. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the firm'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 transaction of $2,599,020.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 471,036 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $204,038,664.12. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $1.65 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $510.05. The stock had a trading volume of 21,075,124 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,610,163. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $515.46. The stock has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.42, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.04. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $476.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $427.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.