Hanson & Doremus Investment Management Acquires 5,027 Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Hanson & Doremus Investment Management raised its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 48,781 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,027 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 2.7% of Hanson & Doremus Investment Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $18,312,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,515,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $133,023,000 after buying an additional 18,052 shares in the last quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,274,000 after buying an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. now owns 17,426 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,345,000 after buying an additional 1,268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 147.9% in the fourth quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 1,748 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $737,000 after buying an additional 1,043 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at $61,208,127.76. The trade was a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider owned 476,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $510.05 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $514.64. 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 capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $477.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $428.54.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.94 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Wedbush raised their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Microsoft from $485.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $541.79.

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.