Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Purchased by WFA of San Diego LLC

WFA of San Diego LLC boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,723 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 1.4% of WFA of San Diego LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. WFA of San Diego LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,602,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% during the third quarter. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA now owns 23,646 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,175,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.6% during the third quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 20,229 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,704,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 41.9% during the third quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 95,565 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $41,121,000 after purchasing an additional 28,240 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 11.6% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas now owns 372,784 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $160,110,000 after acquiring an additional 38,858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 95.7% during the third quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 9,095 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,914,000 after acquiring an additional 4,448 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.96.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other 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 transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $415.06 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $385.58 and a 12-month high of $468.35. 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’s 50-day moving average is $432.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $424.61.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 34.38%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.93 EPS. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.89 EPS for the current year.

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 issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

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.