Bernzott Capital Advisors Purchases Shares of 767 Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Bernzott Capital Advisors acquired a new position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 767 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $323,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Beech Hill Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Beech Hill Advisors Inc. now owns 15,587 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,570,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the period. BFI Infinity Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $4,794,000. West Coast Financial LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. West Coast Financial LLC now owns 52,477 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $22,119,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Guardian Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. Guardian Financial Partners LLC now owns 3,695 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,557,000 after purchasing an additional 344 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 203,047 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $85,584,000 after buying an additional 3,935 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $399.73 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.18, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $385.58 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $422.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $423.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 7,000 shares of company stock valued at $3,070,340 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $510.96.

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.