Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 24.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 691 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 136 shares during the quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 20,159 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,674,000 after buying an additional 582 shares during the period. Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 52.5% in the 3rd quarter. Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. now owns 6,335 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,726,000 after acquiring an additional 2,182 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.5% during the third quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 87,982 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $37,859,000 after purchasing an additional 5,379 shares in the last quarter. Novare Capital Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Novare Capital Management LLC now owns 120,296 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $51,763,000 after purchasing an additional 866 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.3% in the third quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,403 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,895,000 after purchasing an additional 943 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

MSFT opened at $430.98 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $420.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $426.55. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $362.90 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.91. 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 earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. The trade was a 4.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. This represents a 8.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 212,931 shares of company stock valued at $87,297,343 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

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.