Nexus Investment Management ULC Lowers Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Nexus Investment Management ULC lowered its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 15.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 90,650 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 15,976 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 3.6% of Nexus Investment Management ULC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Nexus Investment Management ULC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $34,088,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Atlantic Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 534.5% during the 2nd quarter. Atlantic Private Wealth LLC now owns 184 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at about $69,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 89.0% during the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 223 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MayTech Global Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $83,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Macquarie increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley increased 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. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $430.52.

Microsoft Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $413.64 on Tuesday. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $415.35 and a 200 day moving average of $383.26. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $275.37 and a 52-week high of $430.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. 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. Company 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.