GoalVest Advisory LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

GoalVest Advisory LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 45.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,874 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 9,104 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 1.7% of GoalVest Advisory LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position. GoalVest Advisory LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,608,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% during the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Avondale Wealth Management increased its position in 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 buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its position in Microsoft by 57.5% in 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 owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Citigroup raised their target price on Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer raised 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. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 target price on Microsoft 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 issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.05.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $279.43 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $252.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $245.43. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $315.95. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.48 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was 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 $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft 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 owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft 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 completion of the transaction, 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. Insiders sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.