Kercheville Advisors LLC Sells 1,207 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Kercheville Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,848 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,207 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 4.3% of Kercheville Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Kercheville Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,262,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after buying an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its position in Microsoft by 47,196.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after acquiring an additional 4,824,436 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Microsoft by 67.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,963,863 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,566,250,000 after purchasing an additional 2,404,348 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 31,648.5% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,871,892 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 128.4% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,160,657 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,412,656,000 after buying an additional 1,776,825 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Mizuho raised their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Oppenheimer cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.90.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $439.33 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $366.50 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.25, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $427.76 and its 200 day moving average is $428.69.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company 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 $0.83 dividend. 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 is presently 27.39%.

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.