Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Holdings Raised by Verus Capital Partners LLC

Verus Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 170,482 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 1,364 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 6.4% of Verus Capital Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Verus Capital Partners LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $71,858,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after buying an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 76.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,439,407,000 after acquiring an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after buying an additional 3,264,648 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 46.1% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant's stock worth $23,490,417,000 after acquiring an additional 2,125,030 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $502.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $507.77.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2 %

MSFT stock traded up $0.89 during trading on Monday, hitting $436.17. The company had a trading volume of 20,112,843 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,367,112. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.12, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $384.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $411.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $2.94 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

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.