ABC Arbitrage SA Buys Shares of 3,540 Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,540 shares of the software giant's stock, valued at approximately $1,492,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant's stock worth $16,567,258,000 after acquiring an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 76.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant's stock worth $4,439,407,000 after purchasing an additional 4,568,539 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after purchasing an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 46.1% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,483 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant's stock worth $23,490,417,000 after buying an additional 2,125,030 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 20th. They set a "sector outperform" rating and a $470.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $499.97.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock traded down $3.83 during trading on Friday, hitting $367.78. The company had a trading volume of 20,940,221 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,277,339. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business has a 50 day moving average of $389.13 and a 200 day moving average of $413.21. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.73%.

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.