Perennial Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Perennial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 75,924 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 980 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 5.7% of Perennial Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Perennial Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $28,501,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant's stock worth $17,528,950,000 after buying an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock worth $7,096,913,000 after buying an additional 16,788,816 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock worth $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. BMO Capital Markets restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $525.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $524.71.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.2%

Microsoft stock traded down $1.12 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $497.72. 13,967,977 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,684,200. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $500.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.04. The business's 50-day moving average price is $463.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $423.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 company earned $2.94 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 43,930 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was 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 directly owned 476,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% 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. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company 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.