Amarillo National Bank Increases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Amarillo National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 18,161 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 598 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 1.3% of Amarillo National Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Amarillo National Bank’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,829,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted 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 buying an additional 2,456,190 shares during the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $679,928,000. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted 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 buying an additional 1,796,956 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted 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 buying an additional 1,525,367 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Microsoft 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday. Barclays upped their target price on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a fifty day moving average of $414.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $388.12. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $295.25 and a 52-week high of $430.82. 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 earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.87% and a net margin of 36.43%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

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.