Arlington Partners LLC Acquires 1,374 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Arlington Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 19.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,389 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,374 shares during the period. Arlington Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,610,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Benin Management CORP grew its holdings in Microsoft by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Benin Management CORP now owns 62,032 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $26,692,000 after buying an additional 1,942 shares in the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC now owns 12,309 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,296,000 after buying an additional 1,055 shares in the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 14,209 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,114,000 after buying an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,864 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,814,000 after buying an additional 329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Koss Olinger Consulting LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 27.5% in the 3rd quarter. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC now owns 5,004 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,153,000 after buying an additional 1,078 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value 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 approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $447.27 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market capitalization of $3.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $364.13 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $424.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $427.64.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research reports. DA Davidson lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup reduced their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $505.43.

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.