tru Independence LLC Purchases 81 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

tru Independence LLC increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,334 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the quarter. tru Independence LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,877,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% in 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. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% in the second quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC now owns 9,930 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,438,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the period. Mason & Associates Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.1% in the second quarter. Mason & Associates Inc now owns 9,580 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,282,000 after buying an additional 803 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth $5,893,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the second quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 47,998 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $21,453,000 after purchasing an additional 739 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $426.31 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $429.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $426.72. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $384.81 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.17, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. 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 announced its 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. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for 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%. The business’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. Analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 0.78%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. DA Davidson lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $511.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft 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 owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % 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 valued at $17,383,892 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.