Armistice Capital LLC Trims Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Armistice Capital LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 48,258 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,431 shares during the period. Armistice Capital LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $21,569,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. AXA S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% during the second quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 4,306,261 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,924,683,000 after buying an additional 74,731 shares during the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $705,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. AlTi Global Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. AlTi Global Inc. now owns 103,617 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $46,312,000 after buying an additional 2,149 shares during the period. Albar Capital Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter. Albar Capital Ltd now owns 136,211 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $60,880,000 after buying an additional 17,021 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alight Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 17.3% during the 2nd quarter. Alight Capital Management LP now owns 58,643 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $26,210,000 after purchasing an additional 8,643 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. DA Davidson downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. One investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $418.01 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.91. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $421.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $425.19. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $362.90 and a 1 year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in 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 often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $203,784,292.95. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at $353,189,942.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.