Baugh & Associates LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Baugh & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 43,977 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 42 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 9.5% of Baugh & Associates LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Baugh & Associates LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $18,479,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake 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 worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Hendley & Co. Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hendley & Co. Inc. now owns 54,122 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $24,190,000 after purchasing an additional 1,813 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2,297.6% during the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 16,783 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,668,000 after purchasing an additional 16,083 shares during the last quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 96,422 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $43,096,000 after purchasing an additional 922 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 60,768 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $27,160,000 after purchasing an additional 1,006 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. DA Davidson lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $511.62.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $424.56 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $428.29 and a 200-day moving average of $427.61. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $371.19 and a 1-year high of $468.35. 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 company has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in 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 typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.