Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 26,364 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,081 shares during the quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,344,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1 %

MSFT stock opened at $423.35 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $428.62 and its 200 day moving average is $428.08. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $366.50 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.93, a PEG 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.99 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock 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 buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $509.90.

Microsoft 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.