Bridge Advisory LLC Reduces Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Bridge Advisory LLC decreased its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,065 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 277 shares during the quarter. Bridge Advisory LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 62.0% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 113,168 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $47,612,000 after acquiring an additional 43,327 shares during the last quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 24.5% during the first quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd. now owns 10,635 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,474,000 after purchasing an additional 2,094 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 3.5% during the first quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 41,412 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,423,000 after purchasing an additional 1,402 shares during the period. Finally, ETF Store Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 4.8% in the first quarter. ETF Store Inc. now owns 1,785 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $751,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $415.00 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $422.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.00. The stock has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $362.90 and a 1-year high of $468.35.

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

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.75%.

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.