Wulff Hansen & CO. Buys 4,824,436 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 47,196.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,824,436 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 11.5% of Wulff Hansen & CO.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Wulff Hansen & CO. owned approximately 0.07% of Microsoft worth $2,160,850,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter worth $5,587,119,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 77.6% during the 1st 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. M&G Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth about $846,072,000. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 31,648.5% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,871,892 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,996 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $203,784,292.95. 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 worth $77,916,485 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wedbush reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $410.37 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $420.69 and a 200-day moving average of $424.62. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $344.77 and a 52-week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.08 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.98 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are 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 dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

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.