Rovida Advisors Inc. Takes $12.64 Million Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Rovida Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 30,000 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $12,638,000. Microsoft accounts for about 9.8% of Rovida Advisors Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,515,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $133,023,000 after acquiring an additional 18,052 shares in the last quarter. Centric Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 16,156 shares of the software giant's stock worth $6,789,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the period. 1900 Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,274,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in Microsoft by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 9,250,128 shares of the software giant's stock worth $3,980,299,000 after buying an additional 217,509 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Benchmark reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. 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. Scotiabank upped their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $513.13.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.01, for a total value of $460,010.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 47,058 shares in the company, valued at $21,647,150.58. The trade was a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 firm's 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 132,743 shares of company stock worth $58,835,683. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of MSFT traded up $1.45 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $464.42. The stock had a trading volume of 7,698,971 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,424,473. The firm has a market cap of $3.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $411.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $415.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.94 EPS. The company's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio 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.