Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Vestment Financial LLC

Vestment Financial LLC decreased its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 10.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 559 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 62 shares during the period. Vestment Financial LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $213,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fosun International Ltd boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Fosun International Ltd now owns 6,633 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,490,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,427 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,866,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,050 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Kuhn & Co Investment Counsel increased its position in Microsoft by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Kuhn & Co Investment Counsel now owns 3,286 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,385,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Alliance Wealth Management Group increased its position in Microsoft by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group now owns 5,617 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,368,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank boosted their target price 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. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $565.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $530.00 target price (up from $482.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Microsoft from $485.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.14.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of MSFT opened at $503.32 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $470.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $425.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a market capitalization of $3.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $506.78.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.94 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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 issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 98,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. The trade was a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 in the last three months. 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.