Sittner & Nelson LLC Sells 54 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Sittner & Nelson LLC trimmed its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,995 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 54 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 4.0% of Sittner & Nelson LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Sittner & Nelson LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $9,034,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LS Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 84,428 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,624 shares during the period. Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. grew its position in Microsoft by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. now owns 5,185 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,231,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the period. TFB Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. TFB Advisors LLC now owns 15,180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,532,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 10.3% during the third quarter. Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 2,052 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $883,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Channel Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 10.0% during the third quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 22,161 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,536,000 after buying an additional 2,018 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com raised Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut 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. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $511.62.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $418.95 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $380.38 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $428.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $427.53. 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 $3.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s 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 in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.