Apriem Advisors Buys 119 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Apriem Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 40,715 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 2.0% of Apriem Advisors’ holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Apriem Advisors’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $17,162,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after acquiring an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,490,417,000 after purchasing an additional 2,125,030 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 47,229,125 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,322,513,000 after purchasing an additional 652,493 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 38,420,657 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,104,959,000 after purchasing an additional 406,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.3% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 27,904,450 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,007,285,000 after buying an additional 636,713 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Microsoft from $472.00 to $482.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $435.28 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $384.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $411.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

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.