Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Holdings Lifted by Huntington National Bank

Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,172,349 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 10,771 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 3.7% of Huntington National Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $504,462,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 22,227 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,934,000 after acquiring an additional 392 shares in the last quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 34.2% in the second quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 234,525 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $104,821,000 after acquiring an additional 59,709 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the second quarter. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,042 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,041,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on MSFT. UBS Group boosted their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Friday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $509.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Loop Capital raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $512.93.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.0 %

Microsoft stock opened at $429.03 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $385.58 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $429.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $426.58. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 period last year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.92 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 value of $1,118,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 over the last quarter. Corporate 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.