Fairway Wealth LLC Takes Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 148 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $62,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,427 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,866,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,050 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $443,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Boulder Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. Boulder Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,569 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,106,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Group Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Group Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,540 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,335,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kuhn & Co Investment Counsel boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Kuhn & Co Investment Counsel now owns 3,286 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,385,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total value of $5,985,968.43. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,481,631. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 471,036 shares in the company, valued at $204,038,664.12. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 94,243 shares of company stock worth $41,288,738. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Microsoft from $435.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on Microsoft from $502.00 to $512.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. UBS Group lowered their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $510.30.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $454.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $395.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $412.48. The stock has a market cap of $3.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.58, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid 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 payout ratio is 25.66%.

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.