Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Position Lifted by Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC

Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 26.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,202 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,993 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 2.3% of Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,341,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its position in Microsoft by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the period. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the third quarter worth about $87,000. Family CFO Inc increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 13.6% during the third quarter. Family CFO Inc now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cordant Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 647.8% during the 4th quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 344 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $129,000 after buying an additional 298 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $465.00 target price (up previously from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $454.70.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’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 sale, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $420.21 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.12 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.89. 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $309.45 and a 1 year high of $430.82. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $415.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $396.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.45 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 earnings per share 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 paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 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.