Defined Financial Planning LLC Has $3.10 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Defined Financial Planning LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,131 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 2.8% of Defined Financial Planning LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Defined Financial Planning LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,101,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after acquiring an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter worth $18,733,827,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Microsoft by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $259,539,471,000 after acquiring an additional 7,314,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 14.1% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 49,338,953 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,521,349,000 after purchasing an additional 6,101,005 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $399,206,272.56. This trade represents a 15.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Truist Financial increased their target price on Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Redburn Partners set a $560.00 price target on Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $675.00 price target on Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $626.58.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.0%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $542.07 on Wednesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $512.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $484.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.74, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

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.