Empowered Funds LLC Acquires 149,558 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 70.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 361,934 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 149,558 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 2.0% of Empowered Funds LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $180,030,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter valued at about $18,733,827,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after buying an additional 13,691,572 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after buying an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 6,101,005 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $483.16 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.59 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $507.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $501.59. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate 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 paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MSFT. Evercore ISI set a $640.00 price target on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $630.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $632.34.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’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 sale, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $239,402,668.08. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.