Fiduciary Group LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Fiduciary Group LLC cut its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,866 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 571 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 4.6% of Fiduciary Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Fiduciary Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $42,847,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Evanson Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the first quarter. Evanson Asset Management LLC now owns 31,254 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $13,149,000 after buying an additional 433 shares in the last quarter. Beech Hill Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Beech Hill Advisors Inc. now owns 15,260 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,420,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares during the period. Community Bank of Raymore grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Community Bank of Raymore now owns 7,098 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,986,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Von Berge Wealth Management Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Von Berge Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 4,252 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,789,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the period. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 7.4% in the first quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 779 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $328,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The trade was 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 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $431.95 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $420.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $424.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $3.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $331.83 and a 12 month high of $468.35.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.02 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 28.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $485.00 to $470.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $502.97.

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.