Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 4,876 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 195,083 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 4,876 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.0% of Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $82,227,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $764,000. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,271 shares of the software giant's stock worth $4,329,000 after acquiring an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors now owns 11,516 shares of the software giant's stock worth $4,854,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,622,581 shares of the software giant's stock worth $683,918,000 after purchasing an additional 140,712 shares during the period. Finally, GR Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 87.2% in the fourth quarter. GR Financial Group LLC now owns 1,509 shares of the software giant's stock worth $636,000 after purchasing an additional 703 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush upped their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Westpark Capital reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded up $0.56 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $438.73. 15,313,766 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,422,206. The company has a market cap 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 one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $389.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $411.74.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for 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 revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.94 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Co. 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, June 12th. Investors 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 (DPR) is 25.66%.

Insider Activity

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

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.