Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA Has $10.48 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA decreased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 27,873 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,245 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 7.8% of Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,481,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AlphaMark Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $401,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC now owns 79,113 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $29,750,000 after purchasing an additional 2,133 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 60,473 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $22,740,000 after purchasing an additional 4,196 shares during the period. Griffin Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 81,695 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $30,721,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lountzis Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Lountzis Asset Management LLC now owns 1,103 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $415,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Barclays boosted their target price on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $435.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $430.52.

Microsoft Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $413.64 on Tuesday. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $275.37 and a 52-week high of $430.82. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $415.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $383.26. The company has a market cap of $3.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The company had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.32 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.12%.

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.