Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stake Trimmed by Hyman Charles D

Hyman Charles D reduced its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 269,450 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,118 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 4.4% of Hyman Charles D’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Hyman Charles D’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $64,620,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $318.34 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.49, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $319.04. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $290.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $261.15. 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 released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly 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 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $322.00 in a report on Monday, April 24th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Rosenblatt Securities increased 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. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.28.

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.