Chicago Capital LLC Has $104.55 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Chicago Capital LLC lowered its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 3.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 278,496 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 9,591 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.0% of Chicago Capital LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Chicago Capital LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $104,545,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $44,000. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $62,000. Finally, IFS Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 50.0% during the first 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 476,999 shares in the company, valued at $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the business'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 owned 43,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial raised their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer raised Microsoft from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $600.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI set a $515.00 price objective on Microsoft and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $530.00 target price (up from $482.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. 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.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $550.14.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of MSFT stock traded up $1.27 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $512.15. 1,989,010 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 22,133,133. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $482.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $430.84. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $514.64. The stock has a market cap of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.60, 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 released 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 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.