JGP Wealth Management LLC Raises Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

JGP Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 71,568 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,040 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 4.0% of JGP Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. JGP Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $30,796,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. West Coast Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the third quarter. West Coast Financial LLC now owns 52,268 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $22,491,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. DLK Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 6.1% in the third quarter. DLK Investment Management LLC now owns 36,089 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,528,000 after acquiring an additional 2,068 shares during the last quarter. Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.9% in the third quarter. Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC now owns 32,574 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,517,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. LVW Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 8.8% in the third quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 31,142 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,401,000 after acquiring an additional 2,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strong Tower Advisory Services lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 31,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,369,000 after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. DA Davidson cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Oppenheimer cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. The trade was a 8.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $219,349,953.73. This trade represents a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 209,431 shares of company stock worth $85,796,688. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.2 %

Microsoft stock opened at $422.99 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market cap of $3.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $362.90 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $421.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $426.42.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. 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 payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

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

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.