1776 Wealth LLC Sells 1,193 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

1776 Wealth LLC reduced its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,993 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,193 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 3.7% of 1776 Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. 1776 Wealth LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,173,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 48,526.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 38,422,466 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,160,850,000 after buying an additional 4,824,436 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 67.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,963,863 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,566,250,000 after buying an additional 2,404,348 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in Microsoft by 46.1% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,032,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,483 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 56.9% during the third quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 5,344,566 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,299,767,000 after buying an additional 1,938,304 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. StockNews.com raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $512.93.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $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 have sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $428.50 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $429.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $425.92. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $385.58 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

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.