Factory Mutual Insurance Co. Sells 13,400 Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Factory Mutual Insurance Co. decreased its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,089,768 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 13,400 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 4.7% of Factory Mutual Insurance Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Factory Mutual Insurance Co.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $409,088,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. DA Davidson upped their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Oppenheimer raised Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Microsoft from $485.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $581.00 target price (up from $512.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $541.79.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $510.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $477.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $428.49. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $514.64.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The company’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.94 EPS. As a group, equities 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 $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total value of $5,985,968.43. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 43,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,481,631. This trade represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 98,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have 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 owned by insiders.

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.