Windward Capital Management Co. CA Lowers Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Windward Capital Management Co. CA lowered its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 30,305 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 113 shares during the period. Windward Capital Management Co. CA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 19.9% in the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after buying an additional 2,383 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its position in Microsoft by 20.8% in the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $351,001,000 after buying an additional 196,338 shares during the period. Altus Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Powell Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 16.2% in the 1st quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the period. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’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 value of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. 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 Stock Up 1.2 %

MSFT stock opened at $279.43 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $315.95. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $252.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $245.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.48 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 24th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a 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 assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.05.

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.