Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Holdings Increased by Guinness Asset Management LTD

Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 6.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 554,292 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 31,416 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 4.4% of Guinness Asset Management LTD's investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Guinness Asset Management LTD's holdings in Microsoft were worth $233,683,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Beck Bode LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 37.3% during the 2nd quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 39,951 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $17,856,000 after purchasing an additional 10,847 shares during the period. Kendall Capital Management grew its holdings in Microsoft by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Kendall Capital Management now owns 2,169 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $969,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AllGen Financial Advisors Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. AllGen Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 13,942 shares of the software giant's stock worth $6,231,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company's stock, valued at $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. DA Davidson restated a "neutral" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.0 %

Microsoft stock traded down $4.13 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $396.89. The company's stock had a trading volume of 23,268,830 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,118,146. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $381.00 and a 12 month 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. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $417.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $422.24. The stock has a market cap of $2.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 quarter last year, the business posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

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.