Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. Reduces Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,759 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 189 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 0.7% of Cahill Financial Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,957,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $17,001,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in Microsoft by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,123,871 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $895,211,000 after purchasing an additional 92,940 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $79,401,000. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $690,396,000. Finally, Chapman Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $5,366,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $525.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $515.68.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $479.14 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.58, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50 day moving average is $430.54 and its 200 day moving average is $418.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $480.69.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same period 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. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,930 shares in the company, valued at $20,339,590. This represents a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.