Novus Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 9,280 Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Novus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 9,280 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $3,911,000. Microsoft makes up approximately 3.9% of Novus Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. IFS Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the period. Avondale Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 144.4% during the fourth quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 110 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft during the third quarter valued at about $62,000. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $141,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total transaction of $32,703,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded up $3.80 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $452.94. 19,864,490 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,511,825. The company has a market cap of $3.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.47, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $391.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $411.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $468.35.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's payout ratio is 25.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $435.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets increased 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. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Company 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.