Poinciana Advisors Group LLC Makes New Investment in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Poinciana Advisors Group LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 679 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $286,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Swedbank AB lifted 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 valued at $5,890,530,000 after acquiring an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in 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 during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on MSFT. Evercore ISI reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup raised their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Barclays boosted their price target on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $512.63.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $452.57 on Thursday. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $399.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $413.31. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

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. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.94 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the company'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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 98,010 shares in the company, valued at $44,906,221.80. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 471,036 shares in the company, valued at $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 110,243 shares of company stock valued at $48,619,618 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

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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