Unique Wealth LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Unique Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 12.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,865 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,271 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 1.2% of Unique Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Unique Wealth LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,106,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 worth $281,035,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after acquiring an additional 842,884 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,091,789 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,768,771,000 after acquiring an additional 1,563,533 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp raised their price target on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $415.76 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. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $362.90 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $422.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $426.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 24.75%.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This trade represents a 4.76 % decrease in their position. 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 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.