Patten & Patten Inc. TN Sells 9,208 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Patten & Patten Inc. TN lessened its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 152,932 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 9,208 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 4.7% of Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $57,508,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. FMR LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,152,647,000 after buying an additional 2,456,190 shares in the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $679,928,000. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in Microsoft by 9.2% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,749,275,000 after buying an additional 1,796,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 243.6% during the 3rd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,151,555 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $679,353,000 after buying an additional 1,525,367 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 approximately $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now directly 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 valued at $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $434.05.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $400.96 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $275.37 and a twelve month high of $430.82. The company has a 50 day moving average of $414.57 and a 200-day moving average of $386.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

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 company 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 revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.32 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Microsoft Company 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.