Congress Asset Management Co. Raises Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Congress Asset Management Co. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 10.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 661,770 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 63,088 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 1.9% of Congress Asset Management Co.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Congress Asset Management Co.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $278,936,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during 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. increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,204,664,000 after buying an additional 49,735 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,890,530,000 after buying an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $475.00 price objective (down from $500.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $470.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $499.97.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of MSFT traded down $3.83 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $367.78. 20,940,221 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,282,398. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.61, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The business's 50-day moving average price is $389.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $413.21. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 last year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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