Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Purchased by Emerald Advisers LLC

Emerald Advisers LLC lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,101 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,419 shares during the quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,540,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 71.4% in 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 period. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $54,000. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total transaction of $9,182,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total value of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 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 44,767 shares of company stock worth $13,462,861 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on MSFT. Cowen dropped their price target on Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 19th. Credit Suisse Group upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.28.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $309.46 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.53, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a current ratio of 1.91. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $313.00. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $285.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $259.23.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.22 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.47%.

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.