Garland Capital Management Inc. Invests $254,000 in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Garland Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 568 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $250,032,357,000 after purchasing an additional 15,701,937 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth approximately $5,587,119,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 77.6% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,642,931,000 after buying an additional 2,744,900 shares during the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the first quarter valued at $989,814,000. Finally, M&G Plc bought a new position in Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at $846,072,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $414.71 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $323.18 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $417.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $424.89. 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 has a market capitalization of $3.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.91, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.74%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $506.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $493.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,784,292.95. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total transaction of $15,600,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 496,369 shares in the company, valued at $203,784,292.95. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485 over the last 90 days. 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.