Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,364 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 580 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 3.2% of Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,794,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. FMR LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after acquiring an additional 5,762,902 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,152,647,000 after purchasing an additional 2,456,190 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in Microsoft by 9.2% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,749,275,000 after purchasing an additional 1,796,956 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Microsoft by 0.8% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 10,671,615 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,369,562,000 after buying an additional 88,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,620,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,353,488,000 after buying an additional 207,591 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other 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 transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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 a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.5 %

MSFT stock opened at $400.96 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The company has a 50-day moving average of $414.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $386.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $275.37 and a 52-week high of $430.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.32 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $434.05.

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.