Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Perpetual Ltd’s 4th Largest Position

Perpetual Ltd boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 695,535 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 73,723 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 3.2% of Perpetual Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $299,289,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in Microsoft by 1.6% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $882,816,000 after purchasing an additional 31,401 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $41,318,000 after buying an additional 880 shares during the last quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 55.9% in the 2nd quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 8,290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quest Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 5,176 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. DA Davidson cut shares of 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. Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total transaction of $15,600,900.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares in the company, valued at $203,784,292.95. The trade was a 7.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, 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 valued at $85,796,688 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $418.79 on Tuesday. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $362.90 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $421.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $426.35. The stock 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its 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 business had revenue of $65.59 billion during 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders 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 is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is 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.