Wealth Effects LLC Buys 572 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Wealth Effects LLC grew its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,792 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 572 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 2.9% of Wealth Effects LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Wealth Effects LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,819,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 277.8% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 7,004,341 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,633,912,000 after buying an additional 5,150,160 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 9.3% during 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. Finally, AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $679,928,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. Macquarie lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $409.34 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $306.09 and a 1 year high of $430.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $413.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $392.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.