Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 202,704 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,013 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 3.5% of ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $85,440,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Pure Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 49,514 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,870,000 after buying an additional 1,801 shares during the period. Tudor Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Tudor Financial Inc. now owns 5,060 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,133,000 after acquiring an additional 941 shares in the last quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 98,131 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $41,362,000 after acquiring an additional 1,573 shares in the last quarter. New Hampshire Trust raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. New Hampshire Trust now owns 59,098 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $24,910,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CMH Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. CMH Wealth Management LLC now owns 68,925 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,052,000 after purchasing an additional 594 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $396.89 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $381.00 and a one year high of $468.35. 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 company has a market cap of $2.95 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $417.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $422.06.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm earned $2.93 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.