Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Has $325.90 Million Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 773,198 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,328 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 3.2% of Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $325,903,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 76.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,439,407,000 after buying an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,790,682,000 after buying an additional 3,264,648 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 46.1% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after acquiring an additional 2,222,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 4.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,125,030 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush raised their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $472.00 to $482.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial lifted their target price 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. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $435.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.16.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total transaction of $5,985,968.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,481,631. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 94,243 shares of company stock worth $41,288,738 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $454.27 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $395.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $412.61. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a market capitalization of $3.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.94 EPS. Analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

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.