Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Isthmus Partners LLC

Isthmus Partners LLC cut its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 43,303 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,107 shares during the period. Isthmus Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $194,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its position in Microsoft by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 282,295 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $118,766,000 after purchasing an additional 5,044 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.1% in the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 80,247 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $34,208,000 after buying an additional 3,902 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New Hampshire grew its holdings in Microsoft by 15.5% during the first quarter. Bank of New Hampshire now owns 36,567 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,384,000 after acquiring an additional 4,913 shares during the period. Grassi Investment Management raised its position in Microsoft by 0.9% during the first quarter. Grassi Investment Management now owns 162,755 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,474,000 after acquiring an additional 1,416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grandview Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% in the first quarter. Grandview Asset Management LLC now owns 39,246 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,512,000 after acquiring an additional 312 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s 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 owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $485.00 to $470.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Microsoft from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $495.68.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $418.78 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $419.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $424.55. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $324.39 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.26, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.02 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm 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 $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.74%.

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.