Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Clough Capital Partners L P’s Largest Position

Clough Capital Partners L P grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 55.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 199,387 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 71,390 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 4.9% of Clough Capital Partners L P’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. Clough Capital Partners L P’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $46,437,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 71.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft in 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 increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 58.6% in the third quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Raymond James cut their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.58.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $253.92 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a market capitalization 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. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $315.95. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $248.99 and a 200 day moving average of $245.14.

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

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Microsoft

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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.