Passive Capital Management LLC. Makes New $354,000 Investment in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Passive Capital Management LLC. purchased a new position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 792 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $354,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 169.2% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth about $75,000. Bellevue Group AG increased its stake in Microsoft by 47.5% in the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 241.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $169,000 after buying an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 2.8 %

MSFT opened at $415.00 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $362.90 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $422.34 and a 200-day moving average of $425.53.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. 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 0.80%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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. KeyCorp boosted 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, October 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. DA Davidson cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. This trade represents a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.