Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Purchased by Drake & Associates LLC

Drake & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 24.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,348 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 863 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 0.6% of Drake & Associates LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Drake & Associates LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,871,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its position in Microsoft by 169.2% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at about $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at about $75,000. Bellevue Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 47.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 241.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $169,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $437.32, for a total value of $874,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 51,852 shares in the company, valued at $22,675,916.64. This represents a 3.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 58,578 shares of company stock valued at $24,450,096. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2 %

MSFT stock opened at $443.57 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.30 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $421.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $427.00. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $364.13 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The company 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%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $504.36.

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.