Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Purchased by Vawter Financial Ltd.

Vawter Financial Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 17.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 783 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 116 shares during the period. Vawter Financial Ltd.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $350,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. now owns 10,460 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,401,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 14.7% in the 1st quarter. Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. now owns 1,290 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $543,000 after buying an additional 165 shares during the period. Timber Creek Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 7.1% in the first quarter. Timber Creek Capital Management LLC now owns 38,428 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,168,000 after buying an additional 2,535 shares during the last quarter. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter worth about $6,986,000. Finally, Advance Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Advance Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,614 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,045,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $219,349,953.73. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $416.72 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $419.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $424.54. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $324.39 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $3.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.08, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

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 a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 28.74%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $495.68.

Microsoft 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.