Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. Cuts Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 14.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,165 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Waller Financial Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $279,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $104,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth about $82,000. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management grew 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 acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction 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 $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,614,975.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.2 %

MSFT opened at $279.43 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $252.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $245.43. 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 Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The firm 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 company posted $2.48 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MSFT. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. One investment 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 company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.05.

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.