Employees Retirement System of Texas Has $3.91 Billion Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Employees Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 969,365 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 18,160 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 18.7% of Employees Retirement System of Texas' holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Employees Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,909,468,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised 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 in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 410.4% during the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 4.4% during the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 40,586 shares of the software giant's stock worth $17,464,000 after buying an additional 1,705 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Allocation Strategies LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 13.2% during the third quarter. Asset Allocation Strategies LLC now owns 705 shares of the software giant's stock worth $303,000 after buying an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.8%

Microsoft stock traded down $3.91 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $474.96. The company had a trading volume of 16,804,288 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,485,191. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $480.42. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $425.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $418.26. The firm has a market cap of $3.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.94 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,339,590. This represents a 6.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 476,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This trade represents a 13.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Mizuho lifted their target price 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. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $515.68.

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.