Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC Invests $5.35 Million in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 12,690 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $5,349,000. Microsoft makes up about 4.6% of Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,890,530,000 after purchasing an additional 49,288 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,749 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $3,334,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $433.35 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The firm's 50-day moving average is $387.20 and its 200-day moving average is $411.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.22 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.94 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho increased their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush lifted their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $507.77.

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.

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