Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 1,164 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 27,528 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,603,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,204,664,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $5,890,530,000 after purchasing an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wedbush reduced their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $475.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and set a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $497.63.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded up $11.13 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $377.95. The company had a trading volume of 4,482,807 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,177,769. The firm has a market cap of $2.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $386.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $411.95. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.93 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.