Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC Decreases Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,076 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 240 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 0.8% of Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,614,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Transcendent Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 6.5% during the third quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 24,426 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,511,000 after purchasing an additional 1,483 shares during the last quarter. Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the third quarter valued at approximately $7,471,000. Summit Wealth & Retirement Planning Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. Summit Wealth & Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 7,352 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,164,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 14.5% in the third quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,889 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,825,000 after buying an additional 1,127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mach 1 Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 13.8% in the third quarter. Mach 1 Financial Group LLC now owns 4,617 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,987,000 after buying an additional 560 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.4 %

MSFT opened at $417.19 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $429.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $426.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The company has a market cap of $3.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.42, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $384.81 and a one year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its 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 the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research reports. DA Davidson cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $511.62.

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.