Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. Decreases Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 5.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 29,376 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,665 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 4.4% of Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.'s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,331,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 168,128,024 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $70,720,874,000 after acquiring an additional 3,103,212 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,343,058,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 59,961,337 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $25,273,704,000 after acquiring an additional 5,370,546 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday. Mizuho raised their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $525.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $551.21.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.6%

NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $2.83 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $513.71. 19,103,456 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,594,816. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $518.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.82 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.70, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.04. 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 50 day moving average price of $483.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $431.52.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share 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 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The business's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.94 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 98,010 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,906,221.80. The trade was a 14.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total value of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft 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.