Cravens & Co Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cravens & Co Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,225 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 344 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.4% of Cravens & Co Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Cravens & Co Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,818,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Net Worth Advisory Group acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,399,000 after acquiring an additional 18,544 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $882,816,000 after acquiring an additional 31,401 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $41,318,000 after buying an additional 880 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $32,830,000 after buying an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.0 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $415.06 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $385.58 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $432.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $424.61.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.38% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group lowered their price target on Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Three 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $510.96.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were 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 directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.