Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Burney Co.

Burney Co. cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 128,564 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 617 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.9% of Burney Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Burney Co.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $54,190,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after buying an additional 38,422,466 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,160,850,000 after acquiring an additional 4,824,436 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Microsoft by 76.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,439,407,000 after purchasing an additional 4,568,539 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,790,682,000 after purchasing an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 46.1% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,032,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,483 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.0 %

MSFT stock opened at $404.00 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $424.25 and its 200-day moving average is $423.08. 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 period last year, the business posted $2.93 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.82%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 8,000 shares of company stock valued at $3,493,820 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company 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.