Alan B Lancz & Associates Inc. Sells 1,775 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Alan B Lancz & Associates Inc. lowered its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 14.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,693 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,775 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 4.6% of Alan B Lancz & Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Alan B Lancz & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC now owns 28,441 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,988,000 after purchasing an additional 816 shares in the last quarter. Jacksonville Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $2,133,000. Arkfeld Wealth Strategies L.L.C. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Arkfeld Wealth Strategies L.L.C. now owns 19,911 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,307,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 68,384 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $28,824,000 after buying an additional 1,273 shares during the period. Finally, Insight Inv LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Insight Inv LLC now owns 10,525 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,436,000 after acquiring an additional 968 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. DA Davidson raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Thursday. 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. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.43.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $388.56 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $376.91 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $412.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $420.59.

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, 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 earned $2.93 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.73%.

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.