Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by Transform Wealth LLC

Transform Wealth LLC lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 138,295 shares of the software giant's stock after acquiring an additional 5,519 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.9% of Transform Wealth LLC's holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Transform Wealth LLC's holdings in Microsoft were worth $59,508,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position 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 worth $47,612,000 after acquiring an additional 43,327 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% in the 1st 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 period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 4,152,072 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,746,860,000 after purchasing an additional 499,886 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focused Wealth Management Inc boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc now owns 9,414 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $3,961,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group cut their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson downgraded Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $475.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $504.36.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2 %

MSFT traded up $0.95 during trading on Friday, reaching $443.57. The company had a trading volume of 18,811,895 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,567,176. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $364.13 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $3.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.60, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.90. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $421.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $426.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 business earned $2.99 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid 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 dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 98,578 shares of company stock worth $40,553,696. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.