Livelsberger Financial Advisory Makes New $184,000 Investment in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 489 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $184,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,920,047,000. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 9.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,152,647,000 after buying an additional 2,456,190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $9,625,201,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $465.83.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $446.34 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $418.59 and a 200-day moving average of $405.81. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $309.45 and a 1-year high of $450.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $3.32 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.89.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend 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%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,534,480.83. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.