Manitou Investment Management Ltd. Sells 9,795 Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Manitou Investment Management Ltd. lessened its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 8.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 104,043 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 9,795 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 7.6% of Manitou Investment Management Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Manitou Investment Management Ltd.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $39,057,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 46,579,693 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 16,788,816 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 10,431,988 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $19,481,631. The trade was a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 134,888 shares of the company's stock, valued at $61,208,127.76. This trade 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 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp restated a "sector weight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Four equities 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $534.14.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $501.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $469.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $425.41. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $506.78.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.94 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

Microsoft 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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