Spotlight Asset Group Inc. Purchases New Shares in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Spotlight Asset Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 6,856 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $1,660,000. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.7% of Spotlight Asset Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 19.9% during the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,422,000 after buying an additional 2,383 shares in the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its stake in Microsoft by 20.8% during the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $351,001,000 after buying an additional 196,338 shares in the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.2% during the first quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,919,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 16.2% during the first quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $795,000 after buying an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 8.2% during the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $265.44 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $250.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $245.23. 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.48 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 19th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Royal Bank of Canada set a $285.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.