Signet Financial Management LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 6.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,636 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,834 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.4% of Signet Financial Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Signet Financial Management LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock worth $7,096,913,000 after acquiring an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft
In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 43,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 471,036 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, June 30th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Microsoft from $565.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $534.14.
Read Our Latest Report on MSFT
Microsoft Stock Performance
MSFT stock opened at $501.48 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $469.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $425.41. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $506.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The company has a market capitalization of $3.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.75, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.04.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted 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 return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.94 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders 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 0.66%. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.66%.
Microsoft Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
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