Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases 754 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,550 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 754 shares during the period. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $19,621,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant's stock worth $70,790,682,000 after acquiring an additional 3,264,648 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 4.1% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 2,125,030 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 47,229,125 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $20,322,513,000 after purchasing an additional 652,493 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 48,526.1% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after buying an additional 38,422,466 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 38,420,657 shares of the software giant's stock worth $16,104,959,000 after buying an additional 406,940 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded down $11.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $378.80. The company had a trading volume of 21,606,792 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,523,498. The firm has a market cap of $2.82 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $405.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $419.06. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $376.91 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 previous year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. Microsoft's payout ratio is 26.73%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson upgraded Microsoft from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Loop Capital boosted their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $520.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $510.59.

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.