Bath Savings Trust Co Raises Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Bath Savings Trust Co grew its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 93,394 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 604 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 4.4% of Bath Savings Trust Co’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. Bath Savings Trust Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $41,742,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bayesian Capital Management LP boosted its position in Microsoft by 60.1% during the fourth quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP now owns 48,500 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,238,000 after purchasing an additional 18,200 shares during the period. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,767 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,545,000 after buying an additional 956 shares during the period. Czech National Bank grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 1,307,487 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $550,086,000 after buying an additional 5,253 shares during the last quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 296.7% in the 1st quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,027 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,264 shares during the period. Finally, United Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $9,538,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. TD Cowen raised their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. UBS Group cut their price target on Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, June 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $494.72.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total transaction of $6,009,869.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $417.14 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $3.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $309.45 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $431.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $422.97.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The business had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.97%.

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.