Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Has $67.70 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 157,324 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 3,878 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.6% of Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $67,696,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,511,544 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,426,767,000 after purchasing an additional 97,075 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 6.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,091,789 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,768,771,000 after purchasing an additional 1,563,533 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 18,388,106 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,912,402,000 after purchasing an additional 251,408 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,651,058 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,734,651,000 after buying an additional 501,954 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $429.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $385.58 and a one year high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.40, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $429.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $426.14.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.92 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on MSFT. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $509.00 price objective for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $512.93.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.