Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC reduced its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 48,337 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 183 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 7.3% of Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $18,176,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 150,053,637 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $20,700,525,000. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $66,852,000 after purchasing an additional 20,553,188 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 119,417,954 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,638,815,000 after purchasing an additional 14,652,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 348.6% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 11,998,927 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $894,426,000 after purchasing an additional 9,324,182 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. 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. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 target price on the stock. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $431.03.

Microsoft Stock Performance

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

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 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.