M Holdings Securities Inc. Sells 1,460 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

M Holdings Securities Inc. cut its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 55,856 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,460 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.4% of M Holdings Securities Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. M Holdings Securities Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $13,009,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at $82,000. Avondale Wealth Management raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 57.5% in the 3rd quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 411 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, 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 value of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Fundamental Research reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $269.73 to $259.47 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 2nd. Raymond James reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.58.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $265.44 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.49, a P/E/G 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. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $250.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.23. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.48 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

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.