Ballew Advisors Inc Buys 39 Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Ballew Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,537 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 39 shares during the quarter. Ballew Advisors Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $985,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 40,290.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of MSFT opened at $503.02 on Tuesday. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $506.78. The company has a market cap of $3.74 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $471.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.18.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on MSFT. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $530.00 target price (up previously from $482.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.14.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 98,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,208,127.76. The trade was a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.