White Lighthouse Investment Management Inc. Has $2.17 Million Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

White Lighthouse Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,767 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 114 shares during the period. White Lighthouse Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,168,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at $69,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 89.0% during the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 223 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the period. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at $87,000. Cordant Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 647.8% during the 4th quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 344 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $129,000 after buying an additional 298 shares during the period. Finally, Family CFO Inc boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Family CFO Inc now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $434.05.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $409.06 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $414.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $387.09. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $275.37 and a twelve month high of $430.82. The firm has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued 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 net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.32 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

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.