Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by Allied Investment Advisors LLC

Allied Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 62,412 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,310 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 4.4% of Allied Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Allied Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $23,429,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after acquiring an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $502.00 to $512.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $521.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.01, for a total transaction of $460,010.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 47,058 shares in the company, valued at $21,647,150.58. The trade was a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total transaction of $2,599,020.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 471,036 shares in the company, valued at $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $497.45 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $446.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $421.75. The company has a market cap of $3.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.44, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $498.04.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. 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 company earned $2.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.