Goelzer Investment Management Inc. Sells 2,439 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Goelzer Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 88,347 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 2,439 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 2.1% of Goelzer Investment Management Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Goelzer Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $38,016,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter worth about $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,160,850,000 after buying an additional 4,824,436 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant's stock worth $281,035,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 77.6% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,642,931,000 after acquiring an additional 2,744,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $846,072,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson cut shares of Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $475.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Three 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 presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded down $4.41 on Wednesday, hitting $413.38. 6,998,756 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,467,928. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $362.90 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $422.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $426.21.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. Microsoft's quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.99 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is a positive change from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. The trade was a 4.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company's stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. The trade was a 1.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Company 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.