Cullen Capital Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cullen Capital Management LLC decreased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 234,375 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 3,125 shares during the quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $98,789,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. IFS Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Avondale Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 144.4% during the fourth quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 110 shares of the software giant's stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $62,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $120,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 134,888 shares in the company, valued at $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 471,036 shares of the company's stock, valued at $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on MSFT. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $525.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Barclays upped their price objective on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $515.68.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded down $3.91 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $474.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 16,804,288 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,539,207. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business's 50 day moving average is $428.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $418.65. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $480.42. The firm has a market cap of $3.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid 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 payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

About Microsoft

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.