Seneca House Advisors lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 30,784 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 866 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 4.8% of Seneca House Advisors' holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Seneca House Advisors' holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,556,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant's stock worth $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 168,128,024 shares of the software giant's stock worth $70,720,874,000 after buying an additional 3,103,212 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $44,343,058,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant's stock worth $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 59,961,337 shares of the software giant's stock worth $25,273,704,000 after buying an additional 5,370,546 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI set a $515.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. TD Securities lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Westpark Capital reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $524.71.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Microsoft
Microsoft Trading Up 1.5%
Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $498.25 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $500.76. The firm has a market cap of $3.70 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.50, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $461.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $423.57.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.94 earnings per share. Microsoft's revenue for the quarter 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 fiscal year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The business 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 is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. Microsoft's payout ratio is presently 25.66%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft
In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total value of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the business'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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 43,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,481,631. The trade was a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
About Microsoft
(
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.
Further Reading
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