First Personal Financial Services reduced its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,462 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 404 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 2.4% of First Personal Financial Services’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. First Personal Financial Services’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,984,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% during the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after buying an additional 2,383 shares during the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% during the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $351,001,000 after buying an additional 196,338 shares during the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the first quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% during the first quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% during the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several equities research analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Credit Suisse Group boosted their target price on Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Microsoft from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Microsoft from $295.00 to $337.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on Microsoft from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $322.88.
Microsoft Trading Up 3.2 %
Microsoft stock opened at $304.83 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $272.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $252.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $305.20. The stock has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.93.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 40.12%. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.22 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, 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. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 30.22%.
Insider Activity at Microsoft
In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.
About Microsoft
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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