Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Increased by Davis Rea LTD.

Davis Rea LTD. grew its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 43,939 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,196 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 8.5% of Davis Rea LTD.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Davis Rea LTD.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $16,523,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. Sicart Associates LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Sicart Associates LLC now owns 926 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $348,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,866 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,434,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the period. O Connor Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the third quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $692,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Navis Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Navis Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $476,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Kaizen Financial Strategies raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Kaizen Financial Strategies now owns 7,807 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,936,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $402.25 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $414.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $389.01. The company has a market cap of $2.99 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $303.40 and a 12-month high of $430.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.71 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Microsoft 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 transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $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 worth $30,690,456 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.