Olstein Capital Management L.P. Has $4.43 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Olstein Capital Management L.P. cut its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 50.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,000 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 13,000 shares during the period. Olstein Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,427,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.5% in the second quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,783 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,332,000 after buying an additional 1,384 shares during the last quarter. Paragon Wealth Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.4% in the second quarter. Paragon Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 4,567 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,555,000 after buying an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 7.8% in the second quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 505,019 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $171,979,000 after buying an additional 36,706 shares during the last quarter. Shulman DeMeo Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.6% in the second quarter. Shulman DeMeo Asset Management LLC now owns 5,550 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,890,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.1% in the second quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC now owns 64,845 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $22,082,000 after buying an additional 1,317 shares during the last quarter. 69.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, October 25th. Raymond James lifted their price target on Microsoft from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. Barclays dropped their price target on Microsoft from $425.00 to $421.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Microsoft from $411.00 to $433.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $384.34.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $352.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.64. The business’s 50-day moving average is $328.84 and its 200-day moving average is $326.42. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $366.78.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The software giant reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.34. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.79% and a net margin of 35.31%. The business had revenue of $56.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $54.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 29.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 26,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.37, for a total transaction of $8,778,426.55. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,373 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,941,369.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 26,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.37, for a total transaction of $8,778,426.55. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,373 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,941,369.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 38,234 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $328.43, for a total value of $12,557,192.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 800,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $262,963,391.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Profile

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.