Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 3,027 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 61,373 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,027 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 1.2% of Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $25,869,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.8% in the third 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. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% in the third quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,837 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,511,000 after buying an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Affinity Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the third quarter. Affinity Wealth Management LLC now owns 33,242 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,304,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $508.86.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8 %

MSFT stock opened at $382.19 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $403.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $418.45. The stock has a market cap of $2.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.77, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $367.24 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 quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share 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 period last year, the company earned $2.93 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

Microsoft 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.