Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Raises Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 22.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,313,752 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 957,865 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 4.5% of Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s holdings, making the stock its largest position. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned about 0.07% of Microsoft worth $2,286,507,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new position in Microsoft in the third quarter worth approximately $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $113,399,000 after purchasing an additional 18,544 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $882,816,000 after purchasing an additional 31,401 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.9% during the third quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $41,318,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the third quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $32,830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a 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 $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $412.37 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $385.58 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a market capitalization of $3.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $432.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $424.21.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.93 EPS. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.