Rather & Kittrell Inc. Grows Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Rather & Kittrell Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 33.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,787 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 448 shares during the period. Rather & Kittrell Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $609,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 3rd 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. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 200,523,373 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $57,810,889,000 after acquiring an additional 1,537,712 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd 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. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 112,158.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,017,948,000 after acquiring an additional 150,053,637 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.20% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 26,815 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.37, for a total value of $8,778,426.55. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,373 shares in the company, valued at $64,941,369.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 38,234 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $262,963,391.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 26,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.37, for a total value of $8,778,426.55. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 198,373 shares in the company, valued at $64,941,369.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.7 %

MSFT opened at $363.20 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $219.35 and a 52 week high of $366.78. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $330.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $328.22. The firm has a market cap of $2.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 24th. The software giant reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.65 by $0.34. The business had revenue of $56.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.52 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.79% and a net margin of 35.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.35 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSFT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $385.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, September 22nd. Guggenheim raised Microsoft from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 25th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Microsoft from $411.00 to $433.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $410.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $384.34.

About Microsoft

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.