Dechtman Wealth Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Dechtman Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,741 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 482 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 0.9% of Dechtman Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Dechtman Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,287,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC. now owns 10,844 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,078,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Forum Private Client Group LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $412,000. Kercheville Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Kercheville Advisors LLC now owns 21,627 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,133,000 after acquiring an additional 1,450 shares during the period. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,866 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,434,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Finally, Chatham Capital Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Chatham Capital Group Inc. now owns 30,761 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $11,567,000 after acquiring an additional 327 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on MSFT. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $431.03.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $411.84 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $275.37 and a 12-month high of $430.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $415.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $384.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The firm 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.32 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.12%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, 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 directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 worth $30,690,456 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.