Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Busey Bank's 2nd Largest Position

Busey Bank boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 472,040 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 5,287 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 6.6% of Busey Bank's investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Busey Bank's holdings in Microsoft were worth $203,119,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Net Worth Advisory Group acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,645,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $882,816,000 after purchasing an additional 31,401 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $41,318,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares during the last quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 389.2% during the 3rd quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC now owns 53,770 shares of the software giant's stock worth $23,137,000 after buying an additional 42,778 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Harbor Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 55.9% in the second quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $561,000 after buying an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $508.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded down $0.43 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $436.60. 54,224,020 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,730,301. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $366.50 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $3.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $427.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $428.42.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.