Marshall Financial Group LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Marshall Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 5.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 9,831 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 527 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.0% of Marshall Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Marshall Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,525,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Hoffman Alan N Investment Management raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the first quarter. Hoffman Alan N Investment Management now owns 67,792 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $20,901,000 after acquiring an additional 757 shares during the period. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.8% in the first quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 2,725 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $840,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Wilson & Boucher Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the first quarter. Wilson & Boucher Capital Management LLC now owns 8,878 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,737,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. Home Federal Bank of Tennessee raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the first quarter. Home Federal Bank of Tennessee now owns 15,879 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,895,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, Keene & Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% in the first quarter. Keene & Associates Inc. now owns 11,491 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,543,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.29% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $266.25, for a total transaction of $1,331,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 109,837 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,244,101.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $330.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 20th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 27th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $312.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 20th. Fundamental Research reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $280.50 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, August 3rd. Finally, Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $330.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $319.68.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $250.66 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $250.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $262.40. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $219.13 and a 12-month high of $349.67.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 25th. The software giant reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $50.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.70 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.69% and a return on equity of 43.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.27 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 10 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 16th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.73%.

Microsoft Profile

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Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.