Horizon Financial Services LLC Has $29.31 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Horizon Financial Services LLC raised its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 47,510.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 78,081 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 77,917 shares during the period. Horizon Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $29,311,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Equita Financial Network Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 39.9% during the first quarter. Equita Financial Network Inc. now owns 3,169 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,190,000 after purchasing an additional 904 shares in the last quarter. American Capital Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the first quarter. American Capital Advisory LLC now owns 2,621 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $984,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 23.3% during the first quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 7,615 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,859,000 after purchasing an additional 1,437 shares in the last quarter. Penobscot Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 10.1% in the first quarter. Penobscot Wealth Management now owns 2,863 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,075,000 after buying an additional 263 shares during the period. Finally, Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 60,923 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $22,870,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.4%

Microsoft stock opened at $520.17 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.06. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $502.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $441.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion during 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $609.86.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total value of $2,557,502.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their position. The sale 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 Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,208,127.76. This trade represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 46,350 shares of company stock valued at $21,493,447 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.