Lipe & Dalton Reduces Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Lipe & Dalton lowered its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,973 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 130 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.4% of Lipe & Dalton’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Lipe & Dalton’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,622,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 2.7% in 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 in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,152,647,000 after acquiring an additional 2,456,190 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,625,201,000. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in Microsoft by 9.2% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,749,275,000 after acquiring an additional 1,796,956 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 10,671,615 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,369,562,000 after purchasing an additional 88,583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’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 owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. 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. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $416.56 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $307.59 and a 12-month high of $430.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $413.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $394.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced 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 business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.97%.

About Microsoft

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.