Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Position Decreased by Stolper Co

Stolper Co cut its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 16,300 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 44 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 2.3% of Stolper Co’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Stolper Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,014,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Worth Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Worth Asset Management LLC now owns 4,219 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,815,000 after acquiring an additional 312 shares in the last quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.5% during the third quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC now owns 9,723 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,184,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the last quarter. CCM Investment Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.3% during the third quarter. CCM Investment Advisers LLC now owns 68,349 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,411,000 after buying an additional 902 shares during the last quarter. San Luis Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 10.4% during the third quarter. San Luis Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 22,661 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,751,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136 shares during the period. Finally, Albion Financial Group UT increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the third quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 139,434 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,999,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. This trade represents a 4.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. This represents a 6.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 209,431 shares of company stock worth $85,796,688. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MSFT. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Oppenheimer cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $422.99 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $362.90 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The business has a 50-day moving average of $421.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $426.42. The company has a market capitalization of $3.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly 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. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft 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.