Union Savings Bank Trims Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Union Savings Bank cut its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,168 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 601 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 4.0% of Union Savings Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Union Savings Bank’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. OAKMONT Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 17.9% in the second quarter. OAKMONT Corp now owns 210,413 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $94,044,000 after buying an additional 31,903 shares during the period. LCM Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. LCM Capital Management Inc now owns 20,413 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,124,000 after acquiring an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop Partners LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Hilltop Partners LLC now owns 7,373 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,295,000 after purchasing an additional 584 shares in the last quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 685,514 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $306,391,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, White Wing Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter. White Wing Wealth Management now owns 609 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup dropped their target price on Microsoft from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $493.47.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $419.14 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $418.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $424.67. The stock has a market cap of $3.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $324.39 and a 1-year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.69 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 28.74%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,552,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total transaction of $6,009,869.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.