Abacus Wealth Partners LLC Purchases 837 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Abacus Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 10.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,112 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 837 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 0.6% of Abacus Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position. Abacus Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,921,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,160,020,000 after acquiring an additional 842,884 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,511,544 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $15,426,767,000 after acquiring an additional 97,075 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Microsoft by 6.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,091,789 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,768,771,000 after purchasing an additional 1,563,533 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 14,738,956 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,587,576,000 after purchasing an additional 45,220 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley increased 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, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. One investment 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. This represents a 1.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $415.76 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $422.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $362.90 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

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

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 issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.75%.

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

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.