Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Increased by Checchi Capital Advisers LLC

Checchi Capital Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 88,123 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,829 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 2.2% of Checchi Capital Advisers LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $37,144,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,515,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $133,023,000 after acquiring an additional 18,052 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.7% during the third quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 16,156 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,789,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,274,000 after buying an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 9,250,128 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,980,299,000 after purchasing an additional 217,509 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on MSFT. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $507.77.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.3 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $435.28 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $384.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $411.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.94 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.73%.

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.