BOCHK Asset Management Ltd Acquires 7,970 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

BOCHK Asset Management Ltd raised its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 30.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 33,750 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 7,970 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 4.3% of BOCHK Asset Management Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. BOCHK Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $14,523,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Net Worth Advisory Group acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,645,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $882,816,000 after buying an additional 31,401 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA grew its holdings in Microsoft by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $41,318,000 after buying an additional 880 shares in the last quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 389.2% in the 3rd quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC now owns 53,770 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $23,137,000 after buying an additional 42,778 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Harbor Financial Group LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 55.9% in the 2nd quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $561,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $436.60 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $3.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $366.50 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $427.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $428.32.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. 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 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $508.46.

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.