M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. Buys Shares of 5,600 Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 5,600 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $2,361,000. Microsoft accounts for about 2.6% of M.E. Allison & CO. Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Argent Trust Co raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 277,466 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $124,014,000 after acquiring an additional 5,365 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.2% during the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 270,546 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $120,921,000 after acquiring an additional 5,903 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tredje AP fonden raised its holdings in Microsoft by 10.9% during the second quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 1,832,885 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $819,208,000 after acquiring an additional 179,700 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $388.61 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $418.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $422.36. The company has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $381.00 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the business posted $2.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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.