Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Purchased by AQR Capital Management LLC

AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,563,843 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 28,701 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 1.9% of AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 0.06% of Microsoft worth $2,267,910,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd 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. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,823,341,000 after acquiring an additional 3,166,275 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $88,714,256,000 after acquiring an additional 3,532,054 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth about $50,493,678,000. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. This represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. TD Cowen upped their target price on Microsoft from $640.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Robert W. Baird started coverage on Microsoft in a report on Friday, November 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $600.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $632.34.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $478.53 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.03, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. The business’s 50 day moving average is $504.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $502.05. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $555.45. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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