Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.

Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 10.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 753,429 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 88,677 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 3.1% of Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $317,570,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 76.6% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after purchasing an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted 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 purchasing an additional 2,125,030 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 43,900.4% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 2,042,499 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $860,913,000 after purchasing an additional 2,037,857 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,481,631. This trade represents a 23.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% 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 valued at $41,288,738. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.30.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $454.27 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35. 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’s 50-day moving average price is $395.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $412.34. The stock has a market cap of $3.38 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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