Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Position Lifted by Spartan Planning & Wealth Management

Spartan Planning & Wealth Management lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 167.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,303 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 7,696 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 4.9% of Spartan Planning & Wealth Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 18.4% in the 3rd quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors now owns 8,621 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,722,000 after buying an additional 1,341 shares during the last quarter. ML & R Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 16.1% during the 3rd quarter. ML & R Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,170 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,317,000 after purchasing an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. Diversified LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Diversified LLC now owns 11,944 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,771,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. 1776 Wealth LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. 1776 Wealth LLC now owns 17,970 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,674,000 after purchasing an additional 908 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management grew its position in Microsoft by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management now owns 737,050 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $220,121,000 after purchasing an additional 95,844 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on MSFT. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $465.83.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.3 %

MSFT opened at $448.37 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $418.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $405.31. The company has a market cap of $3.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $309.45 and a 1 year high of $450.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.24.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.45 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total value of $101,389.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,566 shares of company stock worth $10,877,535 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is 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.