Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by RFG Holdings Inc.

RFG Holdings Inc. lessened its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 388 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 0.4% of RFG Holdings Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. RFG Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,146,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Wynn Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the third quarter. Wynn Capital LLC now owns 12,118 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,214,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC now owns 8,936 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,706,000 after buying an additional 254 shares during the last quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 899.6% during the 3rd quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,757 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,338,000 after buying an additional 6,981 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 45.7% during the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 278,392 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $119,722,000 after acquiring an additional 87,377 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 15.6% in the third quarter. Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 2,704 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 364 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. 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 presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 209,431 shares of company stock worth $85,796,688 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.2 %

Microsoft stock opened at $422.99 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $421.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.39. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $362.90 and a twelve month 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.99 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors 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 typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.