Moody Aldrich Partners LLC Has $898,000 Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Moody Aldrich Partners LLC decreased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 30.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,086 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 900 shares during the period. Moody Aldrich Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $898,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.9% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC now owns 20,155 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,479,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Greystone Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Greystone Financial Group LLC now owns 33,643 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,477,000 after buying an additional 936 shares in the last quarter. Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 0.3% in the third quarter. Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. now owns 132,017 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $56,807,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the period. Dixon Fnancial Services Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.9% during the third quarter. Dixon Fnancial Services Inc. now owns 5,366 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,309,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% during the third quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 32,325 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $13,902,000 after acquiring an additional 356 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $508.46.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1 %

MSFT opened at $436.60 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $366.50 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $427.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $428.32.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software giant to reacquire 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 stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.