Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Holdings Lifted by AMI Investment Management Inc.

AMI Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 25,644 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 457 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 3.1% of AMI Investment Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. AMI Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,150,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Optas LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 25,001 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,996,000 after buying an additional 651 shares during the period. West Branch Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,652,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 199.7% during the third quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,356,000 after purchasing an additional 71,769 shares in the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 41.9% during the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $677,000 after purchasing an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $13,999,000. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSFT shares. 888 reissued a “maintains” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $322.00 in a report on Monday, April 24th. Moffett Nathanson raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $263.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Wolfe Research upped their price target on Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.69.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.4 %

MSFT opened at $313.85 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market cap of $2.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $322.72. The business’s 50 day moving average is $294.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $263.44.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.22 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.