Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC Sells 753 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,204 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 753 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.4% of Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,845,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 worth $16,567,258,000 after acquiring an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 47,196.6% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings 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 worth $2,566,250,000 after acquiring an additional 2,404,348 shares in the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 56.9% in the 3rd quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 5,344,566 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,299,767,000 after purchasing an additional 1,938,304 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 31,648.5% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,871,892 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,366,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,996 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of several recent research reports. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Oppenheimer downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, DA Davidson downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.90.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total transaction of $10,425,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % 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. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $423.35 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $366.50 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $428.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $428.08.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.