VanWeelden Wealth Management LLC Purchases New Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

VanWeelden Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,650 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $695,000. Microsoft comprises 0.6% of VanWeelden Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,890,530,000 after purchasing an additional 49,288 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% during the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,749 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,334,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $472.00 to $482.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.30.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of Microsoft 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 owns 43,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,481,631. The trade was a 23.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 94,243 shares of company stock valued at $41,288,738. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $458.87 on Tuesday. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a fifty day moving average of $396.84 and a 200 day moving average of $412.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The company has a market capitalization of $3.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.94 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

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.