Waverton Investment Management Ltd Increases Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Waverton Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 6.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,019,768 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 64,938 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 6.8% of Waverton Investment Management Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Waverton Investment Management Ltd's holdings in Microsoft were worth $429,807,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. 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 acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its position in Microsoft by 1.8% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,204,664,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 410.4% during the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Mizuho boosted their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $435.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 7.6 %

NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $30.14 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $425.40. The company had a trading volume of 58,840,495 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,314,175. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $383.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $410.91. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The firm's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.94 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

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.