Versant Capital Management Inc Has $14.84 Million Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 35,205 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,734 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 3.2% of Versant Capital Management Inc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Versant Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $14,839,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the third quarter worth $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in 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 lifted its position in shares of 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 boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% during the 3rd 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. increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on 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 increased their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.96.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 34,000 shares of company stock valued at $14,333,540 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $408.43 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $385.58 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company’s 50 day moving average is $428.76 and its 200 day moving average is $422.94. The company has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share 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 in the previous year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.07 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

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.