Mason & Associates Inc Raises Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Mason & Associates Inc raised its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 41.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,227 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 4,135 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.3% of Mason & Associates Inc's portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Mason & Associates Inc's holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,341,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $62,000. Finally, IFS Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded up $5.01 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $510.88. 16,074,043 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,868,408. The business has a 50-day moving average of $482.33 and a 200 day moving average of $430.84. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $514.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.80 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.48, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The business's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. On average, 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given 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 0.65%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Microsoft from $494.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $550.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 98,010 shares in the company, valued at $44,906,221.80. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were 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 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 ninety days, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. 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.