Towneley Capital Management Inc DE Reduces Stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Towneley Capital Management Inc DE lessened its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 73.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 711 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,977 shares during the quarter. Towneley Capital Management Inc DE's holdings in Microsoft were worth $267,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,000,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $1,375,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 98,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total value of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 134,888 shares of the company's stock, valued at $61,208,127.76. The trade was a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $2.03 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $501.48. The stock had a trading volume of 16,466,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,678,724. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $506.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $469.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $425.41.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. 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 0.66%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $525.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $530.00 target price (up previously from $482.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $534.14.

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.