Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Acquired by Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc.

Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 41.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 752 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $282,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Newton One Investments LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 66.7% during the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 75 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. IFS Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total value of $9,756,055.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 134,888 shares of the company’s stock, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was 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 directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,624,012.52. This represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 30,350 shares of company stock valued at $14,162,567 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $520.17 on Monday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The business’s fifty day moving average is $502.60 and its 200-day moving average is $441.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.79 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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 paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $580.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $609.86.

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.