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Praxis Capital Management LLC Makes New $727,000 Investment in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

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Key Points

  • Praxis Capital Management opened a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter, buying 1,504 shares valued at about $727,000. The stake represents roughly 2.6% of the fund’s portfolio.
  • Microsoft continues to attract heavy institutional ownership, with large holders like Vanguard, State Street, and Geode adding to positions; overall, 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutions.
  • Analyst sentiment remains constructive despite some recent target cuts, with Microsoft holding a Moderate Buy consensus rating and an average price target of $561.20. The company also posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results, including $4.27 EPS and revenue growth of 18.3% year over year.
  • Five stocks we like better than Microsoft.

Praxis Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,504 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $727,000. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.6% of Praxis Capital Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $347,211,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,955,898 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $148,823,341,000 after purchasing an additional 3,166,275 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $88,714,256,000 after purchasing an additional 3,532,054 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $50,493,678,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $550.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, April 24th. Rothschild & Co Redburn decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Melius Research set a $430.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, February 9th. Forty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $561.20.

Read Our Latest Report on Microsoft

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 1,262 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.34, for a total transaction of $519,111.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 46,003 shares in the company, valued at $18,922,874.02. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 15,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.99, for a total value of $7,145,345.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,928,792.23. This represents a 12.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $416.67 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $407.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $431.54. The company has a market cap of $3.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.11. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $356.28 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The software giant reported $4.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.21. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.34% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm had revenue of $82.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.46 EPS. The company's revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 16.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.67%.

Microsoft Profile

(Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft's product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

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