Aviva PLC Has $830.28 Million Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Aviva PLC increased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,564,963 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 107,136 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 4.8% of Aviva PLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. Aviva PLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $830,280,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth about $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% in the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft during the second quarter worth approximately $104,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 58.6% during the third quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $95,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Fundamental Research lowered their price target on Microsoft from $269.73 to $259.47 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, February 27th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.58.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $248.59 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $248.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $245.53. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $315.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced 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 net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.48 earnings per share. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft 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.