Willis Investment Counsel Has $39.14 Million Stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Willis Investment Counsel decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 104,258 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 6,030 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 2.6% of Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $39,137,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 40,290.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $565.00 to $585.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total value of $1,389,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 43,930 shares in the company, valued at $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total transaction of $2,599,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 471,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,038,664.12. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ: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 50-day moving average price is $471.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $426.18.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its 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. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.94 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Microsoft 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.