Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Purchased by M.D. Sass LLC

M.D. Sass LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 18.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,788 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 0.3% of M.D. Sass LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. M.D. Sass LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,212,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,567,258,000 after buying an additional 38,422,466 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after acquiring an additional 4,824,436 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Microsoft by 67.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,963,863 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,566,250,000 after acquiring an additional 2,404,348 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 46.1% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,483 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 56.9% in the third quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 5,344,566 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,299,767,000 after purchasing an additional 1,938,304 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. 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 three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $425.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $415.06 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $432.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $424.81. The stock has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $385.58 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 34.38%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.89 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.73%.

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.