Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Acquired by Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV

Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 26,104 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 2.4% of Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,260,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951,554 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after acquiring an additional 556,020 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 49,440,386 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,514,665,000 after purchasing an additional 208,765 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 40,345,546 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,396,477,000 after purchasing an additional 215,103 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $311.74 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $286.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $259.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.32 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $313.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.22 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 29.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a 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 on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $1,550,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at $34,169,370.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 44,767 shares of company stock worth $13,462,861 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 27th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.28.

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.