First Bancorp Inc ME Has $4.60 Million Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

First Bancorp Inc ME raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,686 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 3.2% of First Bancorp Inc ME’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. First Bancorp Inc ME’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,598,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 169.2% in the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Bellevue Group AG raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 47.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 241.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $169,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % 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 company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on MSFT. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $504.36.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.3 %

Microsoft stock opened at $448.99 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $422.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $427.22. The firm has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $364.13 and a 1 year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued 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 business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.99 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

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.