Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is CENTRAL TRUST Co’s 5th Largest Position

CENTRAL TRUST Co lowered its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 245,968 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 4,772 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.5% of CENTRAL TRUST Co’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $105,840,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings 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 valued at $47,612,000 after buying an additional 43,327 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% during the 1st 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. Innova Wealth Partners grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.8% during the 1st quarter. Innova Wealth Partners now owns 4,952 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,083,000 after acquiring an additional 713 shares during the period. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 228,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $96,079,000 after purchasing an additional 14,027 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $437.03 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $426.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $428.26. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $366.50 and a 1 year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $508.46.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.