SBI Securities Co. Ltd. Makes New Investment in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 224,710 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $94,715,000. Microsoft comprises approximately 2.9% of SBI Securities Co. Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,515,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. grew its stake in Microsoft by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $133,023,000 after acquiring an additional 18,052 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% in the third quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 16,156 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $6,789,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the period. 1900 Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,274,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 9,250,128 shares of the software giant's stock worth $3,980,299,000 after purchasing an additional 217,509 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 476,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1%

Microsoft stock traded up $5.03 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $443.76. The company had a trading volume of 4,134,725 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,391,515. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $389.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $411.54.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.94 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James upped their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target 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.