River Street Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

River Street Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,256 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 2.9% of River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,274,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its position in Microsoft by 169.2% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $75,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 10.1% in the third 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 last quarter. Finally, MayTech Global Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $200,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. 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 90 days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on MSFT. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $512.93.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $428.50 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $385.58 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $429.54 and a 200-day moving average of $425.92. The firm has a market cap of $3.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.92 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

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.