First Horizon Advisors Inc. Has $78.39 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

First Horizon Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 157,600 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,581 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 2.0% of First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $78,392,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 90,533,328 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $18,733,827,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 691,386,214 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $259,539,471,000 after purchasing an additional 7,314,509 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 14.1% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 49,338,953 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $18,521,349,000 after purchasing an additional 6,101,005 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Melius Research lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $595.00 to $625.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on Microsoft from $630.00 to $632.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Citigroup boosted their target price on Microsoft from $682.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, HSBC lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.33.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $478.54 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $508.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $500.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. Equities research 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, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.89%.

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.