GEN Financial Management INC. Boosts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

GEN Financial Management INC. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,360 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 0.6% of GEN Financial Management INC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. GEN Financial Management INC.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $886,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 410.4% in the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick acquired a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,375,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. DA Davidson upped their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.14.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $505.82 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s fifty day moving average is $473.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $426.73. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $508.30.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.94 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 476,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.