Citizens & Northern Corp Has $11.98 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Key Points

• Citizens & Northern Corp decreased its holdings in Microsoft Corporation by 2.1% during the 1st quarter, owning 31,921 shares, worth approximately $11.98 million.
• Brokerages have set varying price targets for Microsoft, with Morgan Stanley raising its target to $530.00 and Mizuho increasing its target to $540.00.
• Microsoft announced a quarterly dividend of $0.83 per share, with a dividend yield of 0.65%, payable on September 11th to stockholders of record on August 21st.

Citizens & Northern Corp decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,921 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 697 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 3.4% of Citizens & Northern Corp's investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Citizens & Northern Corp's holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $1,375,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $675.00 price target (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp raised shares of Microsoft from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $630.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $598.61.

Microsoft Stock Up 4.2%

Shares of MSFT stock traded up $21.65 during trading on Thursday, hitting $534.89. 22,422,721 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 22,175,734. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $486.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $433.33. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. As a group, 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 issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,339,590. This represents a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.