Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Holdings Lessened by Hartford Financial Management Inc.

Hartford Financial Management Inc. reduced its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 52,875 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 386 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 3.6% of Hartford Financial Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. Hartford Financial Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $12,315,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 621,598,157 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $191,644,927,000 after buying an additional 5,648,095 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $50,302,677,000 after buying an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Microsoft by 1.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 54,799,110 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $14,074,064,000 after buying an additional 784,656 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.4% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 40,130,443 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,306,701,000 after acquiring an additional 939,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 39,863,273 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $12,290,246,000 after acquiring an additional 766,487 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.27, for a total transaction of $6,139,094.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 150,047 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,152,450.69. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on MSFT shares. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Microsoft from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. Wedbush dropped their price target on Microsoft from $320.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. Barclays lowered their target price on Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Microsoft from $325.00 to $307.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.79.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $242.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.14, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $241.72 and a 200-day moving average of $249.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 25th. The software giant reported $2.35 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $50.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.70 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 42.10% and a net margin of 34.37%. The business’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.27 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.51 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 15th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 15th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.12%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.31%.

Microsoft Company Profile

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Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.