WealthShield Partners LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

WealthShield Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,953 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,748 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 1.4% of WealthShield Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. WealthShield Partners LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,096,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the first 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 during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in 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 in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.8% in 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 period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,890,530,000 after buying an additional 49,288 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Securities lifted their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Benchmark reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Trading Up 7.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $30.14 on Thursday, hitting $425.40. 58,840,495 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,314,175. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $383.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $410.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced 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. 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.94 EPS. Analysts anticipate 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. 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

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.