McAdam LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,273 shares of the software giant's stock after purchasing an additional 1,327 shares during the quarter. McAdam LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 62.0% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 113,168 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $47,612,000 after purchasing an additional 43,327 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% during the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 35,888 shares of the software giant's stock worth $15,099,000 after acquiring an additional 1,467 shares during the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 232.5% during the 1st quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 89,032 shares of the software giant's stock worth $37,458,000 after purchasing an additional 62,258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kahn Brothers Group Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft in the first quarter valued at approximately $801,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. DA Davidson downgraded shares of Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $475.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial restated a "buy" rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $508.46.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on MSFT
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 approximately $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Microsoft Stock Performance
Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded down $0.36 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $437.03. 21,883,230 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,589,182. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $426.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $428.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $366.50 and a 52 week high of $468.35.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last announced 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.
Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.
Microsoft 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
Before you consider Microsoft, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Microsoft wasn't on the list.
While Microsoft currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
Thinking about investing in Meta, Roblox, or Unity? Click the link to learn what streetwise investors need to know about the metaverse and public markets before making an investment.
Get This Free Report
