Southern Capital Advisors LLC Buys 1,128 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Southern Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 8,432 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,128 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 2.0% of Southern Capital Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Southern Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,628,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 169.2% in the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $75,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $145,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 241.4% during the second quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $169,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $509.90.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.9 %

MSFT opened at $439.33 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $427.76 and its 200 day moving average is $428.69. The stock has a market cap of $3.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.25, 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued 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 return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total transaction of $10,425,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.