Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Omega Financial Group LLC

Omega Financial Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 63.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 953 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 1,679 shares during the period. Omega Financial Group LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $410,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its holdings in Microsoft by 169.2% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $75,000. Bellevue Group AG boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 47.5% in the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant's stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 241.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $169,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup cut their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Oppenheimer cut Microsoft from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen cut their price target on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT traded up $4.13 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $417.00. The stock had a trading volume of 24,814,626 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,244,906. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $421.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $426.19. The company has a market capitalization of $3.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.41, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $362.90 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.99 earnings per share. Microsoft's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from Microsoft's previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft's payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

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

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. This represents a 8.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. This trade represents a 4.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 183,431 shares of company stock valued at $74,956,968 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

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.