True North Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

True North Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,715 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,063 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 2.5% of True North Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. True North Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $9,670,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Atlantic Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 534.5% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at about $601,000. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter valued at about $69,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 89.0% during the third 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 in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. StockNews.com lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Macquarie raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $432.13.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $399.12 on Friday. 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.09, 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 $414.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $384.83.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.32 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current 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 paid 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 0.75%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.