Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Boosts Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 2.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,617,077 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 154,714 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 3.8% of Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned 0.08% of Microsoft worth $1,308,217,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% during the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $104,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at $82,000. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 58.6% during the 3rd quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 sale, 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $253.92 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. 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 Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $315.95. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $248.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $245.14.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 24th. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 target price on shares of Microsoft 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.58.

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.