Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd Grows Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 15.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 662,000 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 87,434 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 2.5% of Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $284,859,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp increased 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 worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP raised its position in Microsoft by 3.0% in the second quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP now owns 39,743 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,763,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. Pegasus Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% during the second quarter. Pegasus Asset Management Inc. now owns 37,277 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,661,000 after acquiring an additional 876 shares during the last quarter. Finally, St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 3.3% during the second quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC now owns 17,187 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,682,000 after buying an additional 553 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % 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. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $442.33 on Thursday. 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. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $432.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $425.03. The stock has a market cap of $3.29 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.9 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $512.66.

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.