Westfuller Advisors LLC Makes New $1.32 Million Investment in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 3,067 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $1,320,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Essential Planning LLC. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Essential Planning LLC. now owns 4,466 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,922,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 20,957,770 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,018,128,000 after buying an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. S&CO Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 5.0% in the third quarter. S&CO Inc. now owns 156,711 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $67,432,000 after buying an additional 7,397 shares in the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 8.9% in the third quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 57,449 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $24,720,000 after buying an additional 4,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 3.5% in the third quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 2,161,101 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $929,922,000 after buying an additional 73,657 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on MSFT. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $512.66.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was 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 owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.1 %

Microsoft stock opened at $446.71 on Friday. 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 Co. has a one year low of $385.58 and a one year high of $468.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.32 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s fifty day moving average is $430.07 and its 200 day moving average is $425.55.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released 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 return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.91 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 27.39%.

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.