Sanford Advisory Services LLC Grows Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Sanford Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,711 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 119 shares during the quarter. Sanford Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $398,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Summitry LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Summitry LLC now owns 251,983 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $58,687,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219 shares in the last quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 43,046 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,026,000 after acquiring an additional 1,229 shares in the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 17.4% during the 3rd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC now owns 111,961 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $26,076,000 after acquiring an additional 16,565 shares in the last quarter. Paradigm Financial Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Paradigm Financial Partners LLC now owns 35,899 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,860,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fort Point Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Fort Point Capital Partners LLC now owns 29,089 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,775,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on MSFT. Guggenheim lowered Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. Mizuho increased their target price on Microsoft from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 target price on Microsoft and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. BMO Capital Markets lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, Raymond James dropped their target price on Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.58.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $254.15 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $315.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $247.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $245.85.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The business had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.48 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Company Profile

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.