Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Holdings Decreased by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,450,816 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 96,965 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 6.2% of Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Vontobel Holding Ltd. owned about 0.06% of Microsoft worth $1,915,186,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after purchasing an additional 4,824,436 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in Microsoft by 77.6% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,642,931,000 after buying an additional 2,744,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $846,072,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $442.62 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $421.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $364.13 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.29 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The business 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen decreased 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. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. 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 note on Monday, September 23rd. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $504.36.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $437.32, for a total transaction of $874,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 51,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,675,916.64. The trade was a 3.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 98,578 shares of company stock valued at $40,553,696 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.