Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Acquired by Family Investment Center Inc.

Family Investment Center Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 22.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,224 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the quarter. Family Investment Center Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $957,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position 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 buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.1% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC now owns 108,678 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $48,574,000 after buying an additional 9,050 shares in the last quarter. Bank & Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth $7,789,000. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% in the second quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 27,796 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,423,000 after buying an additional 832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 10,621 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,747,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $439.33 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $366.50 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $427.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $428.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to repurchase 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. 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 report on Thursday, October 10th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. 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. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.90.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company 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.