Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Suncoast Equity Management

Suncoast Equity Management cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 177,350 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 10,215 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 8.7% of Suncoast Equity Management’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Suncoast Equity Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $76,314,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter valued at $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after acquiring an additional 4,824,436 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 77.6% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,642,931,000 after acquiring an additional 2,744,900 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 31,648.5% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,871,892 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,996 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 128.4% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,160,657 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,412,656,000 after acquiring an additional 1,776,825 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MSFT. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $505.43.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $447.27 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $424.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $427.64. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $364.13 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market cap of $3.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.