Cullen Investment Group LTD. Acquires 1,334 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 88,289 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,334 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 5.5% of Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $37,214,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 45.0% during the 4th quarter. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,749 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,688,000 after acquiring an additional 2,716 shares during the last quarter. Grandview Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $16,549,000. Dale Q Rice Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $3,375,000. PSI Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. PSI Advisors LLC now owns 6,271 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,643,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the period. Finally, Marcum Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 50,462 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $21,270,000 after buying an additional 1,566 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $408.25 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.03 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $425.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $422.69. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $385.58 and a 52 week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business 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 is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.48, for a total transaction of $423,480.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 56,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,931,278.28. This represents a 1.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,000 shares of company stock worth $3,493,820. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective 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. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.96.

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.