Financial Advocates Investment Management Lowers Stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Financial Advocates Investment Management reduced its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 75.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 28,678 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 87,744 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 0.8% of Financial Advocates Investment Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,765,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in the first quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,496,000 after acquiring an additional 95 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 worth $133,023,000 after acquiring an additional 18,052 shares during the period. 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 worth $7,345,000 after acquiring an additional 1,268 shares during the period. 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 worth $737,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043 shares during the period. Finally, Intellus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $16,075,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $609.86.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction of $7,330,880.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 98,010 shares in the company, valued at $44,906,221.80. The trade was a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 46,350 shares of company stock valued at $21,493,447 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $520.17 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $502.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $441.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

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.