Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Ieq Capital LLC’s 4th Largest Position

Ieq Capital LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 591,560 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,537 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 4.0% of Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $141,868,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth about $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 worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $54,000. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSFT. 888 reiterated a “maintains” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $322.00 in a research note on Monday, April 24th. Atlantic Securities upped their price objective on Microsoft from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group upped their price objective on Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.28.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $318.52 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $319.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $289.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $260.55.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.22 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 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 approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,081 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.54, for a total value of $1,588,015.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 94,328 shares in the company, valued at $29,481,273.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 49,848 shares of company stock worth $15,050,877. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft 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.