Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Purchased by Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC

Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,956 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.2% of Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,488,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,359,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Bailard Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.2% in the third quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,497,000 after buying an additional 5,366 shares during the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,967,000 after buying an additional 6,484 shares during the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky lifted its stake in Microsoft by 7.7% in the third quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 17,471 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,516,000 after buying an additional 1,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bensler LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 3.2% in the third quarter. Bensler LLC now owns 86,932 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $27,449,000 after buying an additional 2,674 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Four research 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.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $434.05.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $409.06 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $275.37 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $414.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $387.09. The stock has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.89.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.12%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was 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 directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the insider now owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $231,823,855.12. 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 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.