Longview Partners Guernsey LTD boosted its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Rating) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,093,663 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 47,840 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 4.0% of Longview Partners Guernsey LTD's investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Longview Partners Guernsey LTD's holdings in Microsoft were worth $502,102,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Optas LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 25,001 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,996,000 after acquiring an additional 651 shares in the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $10,652,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd grew its stake in Microsoft by 199.7% during the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $25,356,000 after acquiring an additional 71,769 shares in the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management grew its stake in Microsoft by 41.9% during the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $677,000 after acquiring an additional 858 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $13,999,000. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Microsoft Stock Performance
Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded up $12.59 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $326.44. The stock had a trading volume of 31,400,955 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,557,115. The business's fifty day moving average is $294.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $263.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.88. The company has a market cap of $2.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.00, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $213.43 and a twelve month high of $326.90.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $51.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.22 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.47%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft
In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $1,550,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at $34,169,370.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at $34,169,370.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total value of $9,182,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 54,848 shares of company stock worth $16,635,227 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several equities research analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Microsoft from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Credit Suisse Group boosted their price target on Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Wedbush boosted their price target on Microsoft from $325.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned 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 $323.69.
About Microsoft
(
Get Rating)
Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.
Recommended Stories
Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Rating).
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
Before you consider Microsoft, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Microsoft wasn't on the list.
While Microsoft currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
Looking to generate income with your stock portfolio? Use these ten stocks to generate a safe and reliable source of investment income.
Get This Free Report
