Sunburst Financial Group LLC Grows Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Sunburst Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,771 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.1% of Sunburst Financial Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest position. Sunburst Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,920,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% during the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 129 shares during the period. PayPay Securities Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Finally, Bellevue Group AG boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 47.5% during the first quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $353,189,942.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $408.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $428.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $422.81. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $309.45 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.36, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. The firm had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.97%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 17th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $485.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $494.72.

About Microsoft

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.