Kendall Capital Management Decreases Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Kendall Capital Management reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,066 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 51 shares during the period. Kendall Capital Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $777,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sicart Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Sicart Associates LLC now owns 926 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $348,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Capital Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,592 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $599,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,866 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,434,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Triton Wealth Management PLLC raised its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Triton Wealth Management PLLC now owns 5,864 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,167,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, O Connor Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $692,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Barclays increased their target price on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $465.00 price target (up from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, April 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $406.66 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $413.68 and a 200-day moving average of $390.88. The company has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.21, a PEG ratio of 2.15 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 quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 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. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Company 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.