Soundwatch Capital LLC Acquires 66 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Soundwatch Capital LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,218 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 0.1% of Soundwatch Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Soundwatch Capital LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,356,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Shakespeare Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Shakespeare Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,895 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $799,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 16,273 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,859,000 after buying an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 561.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC now owns 993,452 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $418,740,000 after buying an additional 843,163 shares in the last quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 6,516 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,747,000 after buying an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prospector Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Prospector Partners LLC now owns 22,142 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,333,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Citigroup boosted their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. TD Securities boosted their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on Microsoft from $502.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $513.89.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $478.87 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $480.42. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $425.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $418.26. The stock has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released 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. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total transaction of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.01, for a total value of $460,010.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 47,058 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,647,150.58. The trade was a 2.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.