Genus Capital Management Inc. Purchases 19,750 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Genus Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 579.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,156 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 19,750 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 1.5% of Genus Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Genus Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,518,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bulwark Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 386.7% during the second quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 155.7% in the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 29.9% during the 2nd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 126 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Evercore ISI set a $640.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 24th. Wolfe Research set a $675.00 target price on Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $682.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.33.

Microsoft Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of MSFT opened at $478.54 on Thursday. 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 market cap of $3.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The company had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

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.