Janney Capital Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Janney Capital Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 84,238 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 2,460 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.2% of Janney Capital Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Janney Capital Management LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $31,622,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after acquiring an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 16,788,816 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 10,431,988 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MSFT. Oppenheimer upgraded Microsoft from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $600.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $555.86.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $1.21 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $512.50. 14,290,681 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,824,139. The firm's fifty day moving average is $484.59 and its 200-day moving average is $432.22. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $518.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

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 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 analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.94 EPS. Microsoft's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Microsoft's payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction of $7,330,880.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 98,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the company's 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 directly owned 471,036 shares in the company, valued at $204,038,664.12. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

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.