NewSquare Capital LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 15.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,825 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 2,531 shares during the quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,067,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Finally, IFS Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 50.0% in the first quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 43,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 98,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI set a $515.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $502.00 to $512.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "positive" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Five investment 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.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $524.71.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $496.62 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.38, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $500.76. The stock's fifty day moving average is $465.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $424.41.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Microsoft's dividend 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.

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