IFP Advisors Inc Has $38.76 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 18.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 91,951 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 14,637 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 1.3% of IFP Advisors Inc's holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. IFP Advisors Inc's holdings in Microsoft were worth $38,761,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in Microsoft by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,204,664,000 after acquiring an additional 49,735 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,890,530,000 after purchasing an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Wedbush boosted their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Microsoft from $435.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $507.77.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.4 %

MSFT stock traded up $10.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $435.42. 21,028,654 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,310,666. The stock's fifty day moving average is $384.18 and its 200-day moving average is $411.01. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company has a market cap of $3.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.94 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.73%.

About Microsoft

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.