Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Northstar Advisory Group LLC

Northstar Advisory Group LLC reduced its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 61.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,585 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 12,180 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.9% of Northstar Advisory Group LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Northstar Advisory Group LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,847,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% during the first quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 153,358 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $57,569,000 after purchasing an additional 2,087 shares in the last quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 23.3% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $381,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 22.6% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 145,618 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $55,654,000 after buying an additional 26,872 shares in the last quarter. Millington Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Millington Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,483 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,518,000 after buying an additional 372 shares during the period. Finally, Destiny Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC now owns 29,536 shares of the software giant's stock worth $11,088,000 after buying an additional 1,434 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Four research 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, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $534.14.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 98,010 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total value of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 43,930 shares in the company, valued at $20,339,590. This represents a 6.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock traded down $2.03 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $501.48. The company had a trading volume of 16,466,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,666,022. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.36. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $506.78. The company has a market capitalization of $3.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.04. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $467.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $424.96.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

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.