Secure Asset Management LLC Sells 57 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Secure Asset Management LLC lowered its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 19,184 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 57 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 1.9% of Secure Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Secure Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,214,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after acquiring an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after acquiring an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 150,053,637 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $404.27 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.89. 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. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $415.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $384.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The company’s revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.32 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MSFT. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Four research 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $432.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.