West Wealth Group LLC Has $3.05 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

West Wealth Group LLC raised its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,086 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 1.0% of West Wealth Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. West Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,049,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,567,258,000 after acquiring an additional 38,422,466 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Microsoft in the first quarter valued at about $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after purchasing an additional 4,824,436 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 67.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,963,863 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,566,250,000 after purchasing an additional 2,404,348 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 31,648.5% during the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,871,892 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,366,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,996 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $436.60 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $427.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $428.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market capitalization of $3.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.02, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $366.50 and a 12 month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. DA Davidson downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $508.46.

Microsoft 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.