Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Hoertkorn Richard Charles' 3rd Largest Position

Hoertkorn Richard Charles lessened its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 2.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 44,767 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,357 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 8.3% of Hoertkorn Richard Charles' portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Hoertkorn Richard Charles' holdings in Microsoft were worth $19,263,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Rebalance LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Rebalance LLC now owns 3,451 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,542,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. First National Bank Sioux Falls boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the second quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls now owns 6,340 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,834,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Flagship Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.8% in the second quarter. Flagship Private Wealth LLC now owns 913 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $408,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 9,640 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $4,309,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 3,255 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,455,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock traded down $0.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $436.60. The stock had a trading volume of 54,224,020 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,730,301. The company has a market cap of $3.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $366.50 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $427.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $428.32.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft's payout ratio is 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on MSFT. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $508.46.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total transaction of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft 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.