Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC Sells 1,254 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC lowered its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 80,179 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,254 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 2.7% of Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $35,836,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,920,047,000. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after acquiring an additional 842,884 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 25,505,600 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,591,126,000 after acquiring an additional 277,881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 25,381,692 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,544,532,000 after acquiring an additional 403,409 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $506.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. New Street Research assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, June 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $570.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $494.72.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $430.59 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $423.50 and a 200-day moving average of $423.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $309.45 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485. 0.03% of the stock is owned by 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.