Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,078,425 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 587,783 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 4.7% of Russell Investments Group Ltd.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.11% of Microsoft worth $3,407,903,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,515,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 18,052 shares in the last quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,274,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. now owns 17,426 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,345,000 after purchasing an additional 1,268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 147.9% in the 4th quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 1,748 shares of the software giant's stock worth $737,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Evercore ISI set a $515.00 target price on Microsoft and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $513.89.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on MSFT
Microsoft Stock Performance
Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $6.25 during trading on Thursday, reaching $478.87. The company had a trading volume of 18,905,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,503,895. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $423.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $417.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $480.37.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The firm's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.66%.
Insider Activity
In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.01, for a total value of $460,010.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 47,058 shares in the company, valued at $21,647,150.58. This represents a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total value of $5,985,968.43. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,100 shares in the company, valued at $19,481,631. This trade represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Microsoft Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
See Also
Before you consider Microsoft, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Microsoft wasn't on the list.
While Microsoft currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
Learn the basics of options trading and how to use them to boost returns and manage risk with this free report from MarketBeat. Click the link below to get your free copy.
Get This Free Report
