Victory Capital Management Inc. Buys 16,646 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,752,618 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 16,646 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 2.4% of Victory Capital Management Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.08% of Microsoft worth $2,424,728,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Disciplined Investments LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 29.6% during the 4th quarter. Disciplined Investments LLC now owns 1,784 shares of the software giant's stock worth $752,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Dravo Bay LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Dravo Bay LLC now owns 773 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Mainstream Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Mainstream Capital Management LLC now owns 5,136 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,165,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC now owns 61,496 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $25,921,000 after acquiring an additional 1,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SWS Partners raised its position in Microsoft by 49.0% in the fourth quarter. SWS Partners now owns 3,238 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,365,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $507.77.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 471,036 shares of the company's stock, valued at $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock traded up $0.56 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $438.73. 15,313,766 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,454,441. The company has a market capitalization of $3.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $389.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $411.63.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.76%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

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.