Carlson Capital L.P. Acquires Shares of 1,500 Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Carlson Capital L.P. bought a new position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 1,500 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $746,000. Microsoft makes up approximately 0.3% of Carlson Capital L.P.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 51.3% in the 2nd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 59 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Bulwark Capital Corp purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC boosted 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 worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $478.56 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $505.47 and its 200 day moving average is $501.98. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The business had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.30 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. 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%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several recent research reports. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Friday, November 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 target price on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $675.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $632.34.

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.