Biechele Royce Advisors Decreases Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Biechele Royce Advisors decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,676 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 116 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 0.5% of Biechele Royce Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. Biechele Royce Advisors’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,399,000 after buying an additional 18,544 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $882,816,000 after buying an additional 31,401 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% in the third quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $41,318,000 after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. Finally, Evernest Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 389.2% during the third quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC now owns 53,770 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,137,000 after acquiring an additional 42,778 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.90.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $421.50 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.78, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $366.50 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The business’s 50 day moving average is $428.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $428.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results 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%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has initiated a share 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 reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.