F&V Capital Management LLC Makes New $231,000 Investment in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

F&V Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 616 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,375,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total value of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 471,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,038,664.12. The trade was a 1.26% 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 valued at $60,224,683 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.6%

MSFT opened at $505.82 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $508.30. 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 has a market cap of $3.76 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $473.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $426.73.

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, 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 firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Raymond James Financial increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $530.00 price target (up previously from $482.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.14.

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.