Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Acquired by RDA Financial Network

RDA Financial Network increased its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 25,514 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 737 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 3.4% of RDA Financial Network’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. RDA Financial Network’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth approximately $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its position in Microsoft by 47,196.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after purchasing an additional 4,824,436 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,078,099 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in Microsoft by 77.6% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,642,931,000 after acquiring an additional 2,744,900 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $846,072,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. DA Davidson cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.1 %

Microsoft stock opened at $431.20 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $362.90 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $420.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $426.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares in the company, valued at $203,784,292.95. This represents a 7.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. This represents a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 134,578 shares of company stock valued at $55,279,956. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.