Conway Capital Management Inc. Sells 175 Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Conway Capital Management Inc. lowered its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,600 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 175 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.0% of Conway Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Conway Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,528,950,000 after buying 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 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after buying an additional 16,788,816 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of MSFT opened at $510.05 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $477.78 and a 200 day moving average of $428.54. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $514.64. The firm has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results 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. 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 quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.94 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.66%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total value of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 476,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% 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 ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $581.00 target price (up previously from $512.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Oppenheimer raised shares of Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $515.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $541.79.

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.