Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Position Reduced by FMA Wealth Management LLC

FMA Wealth Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,113 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 0.3% of FMA Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest position. FMA Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $479,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Microsoft by 62.0% in the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 113,168 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $47,612,000 after acquiring an additional 43,327 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 4.3% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 35,888 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,099,000 after acquiring an additional 1,467 shares in the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 33.6% in the first quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 49,412 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,789,000 after acquiring an additional 12,426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Significant Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 8.5% in the first quarter. Significant Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,346 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $566,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This represents a 4.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,578 shares of company stock worth $55,279,956 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.1 %

MSFT stock opened at $431.20 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $362.90 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s 50 day moving average is $420.83 and its 200-day moving average is $426.70. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

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.