Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Purchased by Mcrae Capital Management Inc.

Mcrae Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 10.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,039 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,296 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 6.3% of Mcrae Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Mcrae Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $32,289,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 380,840 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $170,217,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353 shares during the period. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Microsoft by 7.8% in the second quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 101,344 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,296,000 after purchasing an additional 7,346 shares during the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 2.4% in the second quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 48,368 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $21,618,000 after buying an additional 1,126 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.7% during the second quarter. Modus Advisors LLC now owns 15,301 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,839,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Oppenheimer cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.90.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.9 %

MSFT opened at $439.33 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $366.50 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $427.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $428.58. The firm has a market cap of $3.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.25, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.