Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Silvant Capital Management LLC’s 2nd Largest Position

Silvant Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 551,277 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 11,146 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 10.4% of Silvant Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Silvant Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $237,214,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its holdings in Microsoft by 169.2% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 10.1% in the third quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $145,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 241.4% in the second quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $169,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Loop Capital increased their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.90.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $421.50 on Thursday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $3.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.78, a P/E/G 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $428.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $428.45.

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

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 dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This represents 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 three months. 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.