Atwater Malick LLC Buys 709 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Atwater Malick LLC increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,563 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 709 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.6% of Atwater Malick LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Atwater Malick LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,988,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its holdings in 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 last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA boosted 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 valued at $41,318,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares during the last quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC grew its position 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 valued at $561,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 worth $192,515,000 after purchasing an additional 8,290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quest Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.4% in the second 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 in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSFT. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group lowered their price target 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. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $423.46 on Friday. 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 $3.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.94, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50 day moving average of $420.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $426.46. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the completion of 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,784,292.95. This represents a 7.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 209,431 shares of company stock worth $85,796,688. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.