Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Acquires New Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,001,712 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $422,222,000. Microsoft comprises about 8.5% of Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA's holdings, making the stock its largest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,204,664,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,890,530,000 after acquiring an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 8.8 %

Microsoft stock traded up $34.82 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $430.08. 41,615,361 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,248,390. The business has a fifty day moving average of $383.76 and a 200 day moving average of $410.91. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.66, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. 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 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $435.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed a "sector weight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $503.74.

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.