Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC Acquires 58 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,670 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 0.6% of Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $719,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $882,816,000 after acquiring an additional 31,401 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% in the third quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $41,318,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares during the last quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 55.9% during the second quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $561,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.0% in the second quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. now owns 430,730 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $192,515,000 after buying an additional 8,290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quest Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Investment Management LLC now owns 156,258 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $69,840,000 after buying an additional 5,176 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at $353,189,942.01. This represents a 8.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 209,431 shares of company stock worth $85,796,688 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $418.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 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 52 week low of $362.90 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $421.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.99 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 27.39%.

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

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.