Davis Selected Advisers Has $107.48 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Davis Selected Advisers lowered its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 254,991 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 3,149 shares during the period. Davis Selected Advisers' holdings in Microsoft were worth $107,479,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock worth $7,096,913,000 after acquiring an additional 16,788,816 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 76.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant's stock worth $4,439,407,000 after acquiring an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant's stock worth $70,790,682,000 after acquiring an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 46.1% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant's stock worth $3,032,859,000 after acquiring an additional 2,222,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant's stock worth $23,490,417,000 after acquiring an additional 2,125,030 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT traded up $3.80 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $452.94. 19,864,490 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,511,825. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. 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 Co. has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $391.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $411.86.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.94 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $472.00 to $482.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $507.77.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the firm'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 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 trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.