Darden Wealth Group Inc Grows Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Darden Wealth Group Inc grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,478 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 91 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 5.7% of Darden Wealth Group Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Darden Wealth Group Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,951,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% during 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. increased its stake in Microsoft by 67.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,963,863 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,566,250,000 after buying an additional 2,404,348 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 46.1% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after acquiring an additional 2,222,483 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. UBS Group raised 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $512.66.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $447.24 on Wednesday. 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 50 day simple moving average of $431.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $425.08. 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 $3.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.90, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

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.