Banque Pictet & Cie SA Boosts Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Banque Pictet & Cie SA boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 16.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,224,415 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 173,795 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 3.1% of Banque Pictet & Cie SA’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Banque Pictet & Cie SA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $293,639,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Olstein Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in Microsoft by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. now owns 33,000 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,914,000 after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC now owns 52,392 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,565,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. ML & R Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. ML & R Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,161 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $518,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 38,085 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,134,000 after purchasing an additional 1,977 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y.D. More Investments Ltd acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $23,585,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. 888 reiterated a “maintains” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $348.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. One investment 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.28.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1 %

MSFT opened at $318.34 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $290.86 and its 200-day moving average is $261.15. 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. 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 earned $2.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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 $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 110,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 54,848 shares of company stock worth $16,635,227. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.