Northwest Wealth Management LLC Buys 1,242 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Northwest Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 14.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,725 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 1,242 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 0.9% of Northwest Wealth Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. Northwest Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,099,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC grew its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,890,530,000 after purchasing an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,749 shares of the software giant's stock worth $3,334,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 98,010 shares in the company, valued at $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total transaction of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 110,243 shares of company stock worth $48,619,618. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $510.30.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.2%

MSFT stock opened at $458.17 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $3.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.89, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business has a fifty day moving average of $398.43 and a 200-day moving average of $413.04.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Microsoft's 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.

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