Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. Acquires 60,532 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. grew its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 51.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 177,933 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 60,532 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 2.4% of Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $74,999,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 54,742 shares of the software giant's stock worth $23,074,000 after buying an additional 4,112 shares during the period. Marco Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 80,605 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $33,975,000 after purchasing an additional 410 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,195 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $6,405,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. BBR Partners LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. BBR Partners LLC now owns 77,131 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $32,511,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,892 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,484,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total transaction of $2,599,020.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 471,036 shares in the company, valued at $204,038,664.12. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock traded up $3.80 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $452.94. 19,864,490 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,511,825. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $391.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $411.86. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $3.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.47, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.94 EPS. The company's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.73%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. DA Davidson increased their price target on Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Barclays upped their price objective on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $507.77.

Microsoft 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.