American Investment Services Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

American Investment Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 43.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,057 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the quarter. American Investment Services Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $472,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Tairen Capital Ltd increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 557.8% during the second quarter. Tairen Capital Ltd now owns 1,079,109 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $482,308,000 after acquiring an additional 915,058 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 4.0% in the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 245,370 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $109,668,000 after buying an additional 9,345 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $294,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in Microsoft by 8.2% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 2,175,351 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $972,273,000 after buying an additional 164,980 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beck Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.9% in the second quarter. Beck Capital Management LLC now owns 31,460 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,061,000 after buying an additional 898 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on MSFT. Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $353,189,942.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $422.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $421.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $424.95. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $360.36 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.75%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.