WealthCare Investment Partners LLC Increases Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

WealthCare Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,966 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 1.3% of WealthCare Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. WealthCare Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,916,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in 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. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,204,664,000 after acquiring an additional 49,735 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 410.4% in the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,890,530,000 after purchasing an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $435.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Scotiabank started coverage on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 20th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 target price on the stock. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $494.80.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.1 %

MSFT stock opened at $374.58 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The company has a fifty day moving average of $385.70 and a 200-day moving average of $411.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the firm posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

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.