First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown Has $16.03 Million Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown cut its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 10.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 38,024 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 4,465 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 3.3% of First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown's holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest position. First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown's holdings in Microsoft were worth $16,027,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Maytree Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $969,000. Hardy Reed LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Hardy Reed LLC now owns 27,504 shares of the software giant's stock worth $11,593,000 after buying an additional 763 shares in the last quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,386,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in Microsoft by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 3,603,020 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,518,673,000 after purchasing an additional 251,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mcdaniel Terry & Co. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant's stock worth $133,023,000 after purchasing an additional 18,052 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Microsoft from $520.00 to $435.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $472.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $493.13.

Microsoft Stock Up 3.4 %

MSFT stock opened at $387.30 on Friday. The business's 50 day moving average price is $385.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $411.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The company has a market capitalization of $2.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share 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 paid 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 0.86%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio 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.

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