Verus Capital Partners LLC Acquires 52,643 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Verus Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 53.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 151,873 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 52,643 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 6.7% of Verus Capital Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $35,371,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter worth $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 71.4% during 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 during the last quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the third quarter worth $82,000. Avondale Wealth Management increased its holdings in Microsoft by 58.6% during the third quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $95,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 57.5% during the third quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 411 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $95,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 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 value of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $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 ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $260.79 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $249.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $245.09. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $315.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.98, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 30.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 2nd. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective 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 cut shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.58.

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.