Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,620 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,418,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Curated Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 15,710 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,760,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the period. Seneca House Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Seneca House Advisors now owns 29,221 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,574,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Lwmg LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% during the third quarter. Lwmg LLC now owns 9,276 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,992,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 12.8% during the third quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 15,286 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,577,000 after buying an additional 1,731 shares during the period. Finally, Triton Wealth Management PLLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 9.0% during the third quarter. Triton Wealth Management PLLC now owns 6,765 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,855,000 after buying an additional 561 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.5 %

MSFT stock opened at $417.79 on Wednesday. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $422.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.21. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $362.90 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company has a market capitalization of $3.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The firm’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. DA Davidson downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group reduced 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction 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 approximately $328,473,703.53. The trade was a 1.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837. 0.03% of the stock is 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.