Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC

Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC reduced its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,311 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 69 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 0.7% of Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $995,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Realta Investment Advisors raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Realta Investment Advisors now owns 37,229 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,639,000 after buying an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Newman Dignan & Sheerar Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Newman Dignan & Sheerar Inc. now owns 30,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $13,758,000 after buying an additional 507 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC now owns 81,607 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,474,000 after buying an additional 877 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PFG Private Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. PFG Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,475 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,000,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on MSFT. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. 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 issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.90.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $423.35 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 cap of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.93, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $366.50 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $428.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $428.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

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.