Diversified Investment Strategies LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Diversified Investment Strategies LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,667 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 585 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.6% of Diversified Investment Strategies LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Diversified Investment Strategies LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,075,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in Microsoft by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,204,664,000 after buying an additional 49,735 shares during the last quarter. Hoffman Alan N Investment Management lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Hoffman Alan N Investment Management now owns 77,217 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $33,226,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SignalPoint Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 398.0% in the 3rd quarter. SignalPoint Asset Management LLC now owns 71,438 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $30,577,000 after buying an additional 57,093 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $391.26 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $376.91 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $408.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $419.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its 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 return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 26.73%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. DA Davidson upgraded Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.59.

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.