International Assets Investment Management LLC Takes $9.63 Billion Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 25,596,215 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. Microsoft accounts for 1.9% of International Assets Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. International Assets Investment Management LLC owned about 0.34% of Microsoft at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 185 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.2% in the third quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,497,000 after purchasing an additional 5,366 shares in the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC boosted 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 worth $25,967,000 after purchasing an additional 6,484 shares in the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky boosted 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 worth $5,516,000 after purchasing an additional 1,245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bensler LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 3.2% in the third quarter. Bensler LLC now owns 86,932 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $27,449,000 after purchasing an additional 2,674 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp initiated coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $480.00 price target (up previously from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $452.61.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $406.32 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $414.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $388.12. The company has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $295.25 and a 1 year high of $430.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.87% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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