Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by Nova R Wealth Inc.

Nova R Wealth Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 37.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,173 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,418 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 1.2% of Nova R Wealth Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Nova R Wealth Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,945,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after purchasing an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,824,173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $50,302,677,000 after purchasing an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 112,158.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,017,948,000 after purchasing an additional 150,053,637 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. 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. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $430.52.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $414.58 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.48, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a fifty day moving average of $415.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $383.95. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $275.37 and a 52-week high of $430.82. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The business’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio 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.