Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 37.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,438 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,317 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 0.9% of Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,631,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% in 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 buying an additional 38,422,466 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,511,544 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,426,767,000 after acquiring an additional 97,075 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 6.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,091,789 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,768,771,000 after acquiring an additional 1,563,533 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 14,738,956 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,587,576,000 after purchasing an additional 45,220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,890,530,000 after purchasing an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $508.46.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.1 %

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

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

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.