West Family Investments Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 20.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,575 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 3,882 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 3.3% of West Family Investments Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. West Family Investments Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $9,714,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after buying an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its position in Microsoft by 47,196.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,160,850,000 after purchasing an additional 4,824,436 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 67.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,963,863 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $2,566,250,000 after purchasing an additional 2,404,348 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in Microsoft by 46.1% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,483 shares during the period. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 56.9% during the third quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 5,344,566 shares of the software giant's stock worth $2,299,767,000 after purchasing an additional 1,938,304 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities research analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on Microsoft in a report on Friday, January 17th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $509.00 target price on the stock. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Truist Financial restated a "buy" rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of Microsoft from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $548.00 to $540.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $512.66.
Get Our Latest Research Report on Microsoft
Insider Activity at Microsoft
In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company's stock, valued at $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.
Microsoft Stock Performance
Microsoft stock traded down $2.65 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $444.06. 15,539,488 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,490,811. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $431.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $425.54. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $385.58 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.64, a PEG ratio of 2.40 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.99 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.9 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 27.39%.
About Microsoft
(
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.
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