RHS Financial LLC Raises Stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

RHS Financial LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 55.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 4,073 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 1,450 shares during the quarter. RHS Financial LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,529,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. IFS Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant's stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $62,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 98,010 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. The trade was a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total transaction of $5,985,968.43. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 43,100 shares in the company, valued at $19,481,631. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer upgraded Microsoft from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $600.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI set a $515.00 price objective on Microsoft and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $541.79.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded down $1.65 during trading on Friday, reaching $510.05. The company had a trading volume of 21,120,811 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,618,181. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $514.64. The business's 50 day moving average price is $477.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $428.54. The stock has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.42, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.94 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.66%.

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.