Perennial Investment Advisors LLC Buys 1,497 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Perennial Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 31,204 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 1,497 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.5% of Perennial Investment Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $13,153,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $44,343,058,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock worth $288,336,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Microsoft by 76.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,439,407,000 after buying an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after buying an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.01, for a total transaction of $460,010.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 47,058 shares in the company, valued at $21,647,150.58. The trade was a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 now directly owns 471,036 shares in the company, valued at $204,038,664.12. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $502.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $515.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $513.89.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $6.25 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $478.87. The company's stock had a trading volume of 18,905,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,503,895. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $423.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $417.84. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $480.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.56, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.94 earnings per share. Microsoft's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is 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.