Parkside Investments LLC Purchases 15,682 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Parkside Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 186.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,104 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,682 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 1.6% of Parkside Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Parkside Investments LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,141,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $58,000. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its stake in Microsoft by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Cooksen Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $86,000. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 160.7% in the 4th quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. now owns 232 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $87,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $467.12.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $456.73 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $424.11 and a 200 day moving average of $410.15. The stock has a market cap of $3.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $309.45 and a 12 month high of $457.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total transaction of $134,145.20. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,686,433. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,566 shares of company stock worth $10,877,535 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by 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.