Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stake Boosted by Brown Advisory Inc.

Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,885,085 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 323,039 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 4.9% of Brown Advisory Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its biggest position. Brown Advisory Inc. owned 0.15% of Microsoft worth $2,535,137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 5,648,095 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 54,799,110 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,074,064,000 after acquiring an additional 784,656 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 40,345,546 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,396,477,000 after acquiring an additional 215,103 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 39,863,273 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,290,246,000 after acquiring an additional 766,487 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. UBS Group set a $250.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.58.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $252.32 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $315.95. The stock has a market cap of $1.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a fifty day moving average of $248.53 and a 200-day moving average of $245.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 1.93.

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

About Microsoft

(Get Rating)

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.