Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Has $1.88 Billion Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,202,480 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 48,072 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 2.7% of Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,878,298,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total transaction of $6,009,869.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at $328,473,703.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $438.69 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $309.45 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company has a market capitalization of $3.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $421.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $423.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its 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. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. New Street Research started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, June 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $570.00 price objective for the company. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $494.72.

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.