Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Raised by New York Life Investment Management LLC

New York Life Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,086,121 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,440 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 4.5% of New York Life Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $457,800,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Apriem Advisors boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Apriem Advisors now owns 40,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,162,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Lineweaver Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Lineweaver Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,178 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,776,000 after buying an additional 1,923 shares in the last quarter. Allegiance Financial Group Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Allegiance Financial Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 40,630 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,126,000 after buying an additional 546 shares in the last quarter. Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. now owns 2,737 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,154,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Walter Public Investments Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 82,775 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $34,890,000 after acquiring an additional 5,436 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. TD Securities boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.3 %

MSFT stock opened at $435.28 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $384.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $411.07. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $3.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. The business 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.94 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid 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 of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.