Douglas Lane & Associates LLC Has $180.38 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC cut its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 428,730 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 15,719 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.5% of Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $180,375,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $58,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its stake in Microsoft by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Cooksen Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $86,000. Finally, Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at about $87,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price target for the company. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $480.00 price objective (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $467.12.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $452.85 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $422.18 and a 200 day moving average of $408.83. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $309.45 and a 12 month high of $456.17.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.45 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,534,480.83. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,566 shares of company stock worth $10,877,535. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by 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.