Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 33.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,035 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,514 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 2.2% of Braun Bostich & Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Braun Bostich & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $707,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $66,852,000 after acquiring an additional 20,553,188 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 621,598,157 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $191,644,927,000 after purchasing an additional 5,648,095 shares during the period. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 11,434.2% in the second quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. now owns 5,460,976 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $21,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,413,630 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth $981,125,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its position in Microsoft by 13.8% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,524,669,000 after buying an additional 3,757,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 price target on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Wolfe Research cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Guggenheim downgraded 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.58.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $253.92 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a market cap of $1.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $248.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $245.14. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $315.95.

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

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.