Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Violich Capital Management Inc.'s Largest Position

Violich Capital Management Inc. cut its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 184,651 shares of the software giant's stock after selling 3,337 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 10.1% of Violich Capital Management Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Violich Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Microsoft were worth $77,830,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its position in Microsoft by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,204,664,000 after buying an additional 49,735 shares in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 410.4% in the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant's stock valued at $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant's stock worth $5,890,530,000 after acquiring an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Wedbush cut their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $475.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $504.90.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock traded up $4.63 during trading on Monday, reaching $393.08. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,955,637 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,177,789. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $391.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $414.41. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.93 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. Microsoft's dividend payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

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.