Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC Grows Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,714 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the quarter. Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,598,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Lummis Asset Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 23.3% in the third quarter. Lummis Asset Management LP now owns 16,339 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,031,000 after buying an additional 3,092 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 350,356 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $150,758,000 after acquiring an additional 12,137 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 418,563 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $180,108,000 after acquiring an additional 10,716 shares in the last quarter. Snider Financial Group boosted its stake in Microsoft by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 22,726 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,779,000 after purchasing an additional 876 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Curi RMB Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC now owns 323,613 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $139,251,000 after purchasing an additional 12,858 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $429.03 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $429.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $426.37. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $385.58 and a one year high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. 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 results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.92 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price 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. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $512.93.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

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

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.