Etfidea LLC Has $754,000 Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Etfidea LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,006 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Etfidea LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $754,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,152,647,000 after purchasing an additional 2,456,190 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,749,275,000 after purchasing an additional 1,796,956 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 10,671,615 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,369,562,000 after purchasing an additional 88,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,620,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,353,488,000 after purchasing an additional 207,591 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $399.04 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $292.73 and a 12 month high of $430.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $414.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $387.17.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.32 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on MSFT. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $434.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last ninety days. 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.