AM Investment Strategies LLC Purchases 199 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

AM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,508 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.7% of AM Investment Strategies LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. AM Investment Strategies LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,931,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Chip Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.4% during the second quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 97,353 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,512,000 after buying an additional 3,230 shares during the period. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.9% in the second quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 39,498 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,654,000 after acquiring an additional 1,858 shares during the period. Rowlandmiller & PARTNERS.ADV grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% during the second quarter. Rowlandmiller & PARTNERS.ADV now owns 51,153 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $22,863,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Kraft Davis & Associates LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Kraft Davis & Associates LLC now owns 5,277 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,242,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 4,031,145 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,801,720,000 after purchasing an additional 227,475 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $485.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group decreased their price objective 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. DA Davidson downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $493.94.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $416.06 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $418.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $425.03. The stock has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $314.90 and a twelve month high of $468.35.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.74%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at $328,473,703.53. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total transaction of $6,009,869.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.