IVC Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 167 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

IVC Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,237 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 167 shares during the period. IVC Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,393,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.2% during the third quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 15,517 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,677,000 after acquiring an additional 760 shares during the last quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 4.5% during the third quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,054 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,745,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Cavalier Investments LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 6.2% in the third quarter. Cavalier Investments LLC now owns 11,859 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,103,000 after acquiring an additional 690 shares during the period. Montgomery Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Montgomery Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,455 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,790,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pointe Capital Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC now owns 9,450 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,066,000 after buying an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. 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 note on Friday, October 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $509.90.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $439.33 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $366.50 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $427.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $428.69.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.99 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Company 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.