Mattern Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Mattern Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 38,085 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,977 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.7% of Mattern Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Mattern Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $9,134,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after purchasing an additional 6,129,708 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the second 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 period. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 208,765 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 40,345,546 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,396,477,000 after acquiring an additional 215,103 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Fundamental Research lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 2nd. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $348.00 in a research note 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 assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.28.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $318.34 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.49, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $319.04. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $290.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $261.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.88.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 29.47%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the 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 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total value of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 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 90 days, insiders sold 54,848 shares of company stock worth $16,635,227. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.