Heritage Wealth Partners LLC Buys 604 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Heritage Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,456 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 604 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 3.9% of Heritage Wealth Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Heritage Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,143,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP now owns 39,743 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,763,000 after buying an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. tru Independence LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. tru Independence LLC now owns 11,253 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,030,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bowie Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 26.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bowie Capital Management LLC now owns 255,940 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $114,392,000 after acquiring an additional 53,758 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $510.96.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $416.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $425.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $422.79. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $385.58 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.50, a PEG ratio of 2.17 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.93 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.07 earnings per share 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 issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.87, for a total value of $1,077,175.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 53,852 shares in the company, valued at $23,203,211.24. The trade was a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,000 shares of company stock worth $3,493,820. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.