Massachusetts Wealth Management Sells 89 Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Massachusetts Wealth Management decreased its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,720 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 89 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 2.5% of Massachusetts Wealth Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Massachusetts Wealth Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,649,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. IFS Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 50.0% in the first quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owned 471,036 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total value of $5,985,968.43. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,481,631. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.3%

MSFT opened at $510.05 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.42, a PEG 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 50 day moving average of $477.78 and a 200-day moving average of $428.49. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $514.64.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.94 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Oppenheimer raised Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wedbush raised their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $525.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $541.79.

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.