Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stake Increased by LVZ Inc.

LVZ Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 23.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,017 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 566 shares during the period. LVZ Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,135,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,152,647,000 after acquiring an additional 2,456,190 shares during the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $679,928,000. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.2% in the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,749,275,000 after acquiring an additional 1,796,956 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 243.6% in the third quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,151,555 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $679,353,000 after acquiring an additional 1,525,367 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $409.06 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $414.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $387.09. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $275.37 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.89. 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 (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 firm had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.32 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.12%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. 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 data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $434.05.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. 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 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company 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.