Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Acquired by 1492 Capital Management LLC

1492 Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 856 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the quarter. 1492 Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $361,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. IFS Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 53.8% in the fourth quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Avondale Wealth Management lifted its stake in Microsoft by 144.4% during the fourth quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 110 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on MSFT. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $515.68.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 98,010 shares in the company, valued at $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $474.96 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $428.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $418.65. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $480.42.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 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.