Close Asset Management Ltd reduced its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,082,510 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 102,084 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 13.8% of Close Asset Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Close Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $259,613,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $61,000. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 6th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Microsoft from $282.00 to $332.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. Raymond James raised their target price on Microsoft from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson raised their target price on Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $299.44.
Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft
In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Microsoft Price Performance
Microsoft stock opened at $275.42 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The company has a market capitalization of $2.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $294.18. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $271.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $252.15.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.48 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.99%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 30.22%.
Microsoft Profile
Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.
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