Prentice Wealth Management LLC Buys 551 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Prentice Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,586 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 551 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.5% of Prentice Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Prentice Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,454,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Financial Security Advisor Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Financial Security Advisor Inc. now owns 27,270 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,255,000 after buying an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,359,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC now owns 8,213 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,089,000 after buying an additional 1,067 shares during the last quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 60.1% in the 4th quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP now owns 48,500 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,238,000 after buying an additional 18,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RNC Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,967,000 after buying an additional 6,484 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the transaction, 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 can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total transaction of $10,642,000.00. Following the transaction, 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 can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 322 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $416.60, for a total value of $134,145.20. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,255 shares in the company, valued at $19,686,433. 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 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $467.12.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.2 %

MSFT opened at $456.73 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $309.45 and a 52 week high of $457.37. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $424.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $410.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its 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. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion for 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company 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 $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

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.