Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 108,365 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 6,983 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $45,676,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. BCK Partners Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.8% in the third quarter. BCK Partners Inc. now owns 1,353 shares of the software giant's stock worth $582,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,427 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,866,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,050 shares of the software giant's stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Sequent Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.3% in the third quarter. Sequent Asset Management LLC now owns 1,983 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $853,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cypress Point Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cypress Point Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,208 shares of the software giant's stock worth $1,380,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. 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 report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays decreased their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $430.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $494.80.
View Our Latest Stock Report on MSFT
Microsoft Trading Up 2.1 %
Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $7.76 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $374.58. The company had a trading volume of 20,511,535 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,260,718. The stock has a market cap of $2.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $386.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $411.95. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 period last year, the business posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft's payout ratio is 26.73%.
Microsoft Company Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
Further Reading
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