Marshall Financial Group Inc. ADV Lowers Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Marshall Financial Group Inc. ADV lessened its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 20.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,592 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Marshall Financial Group Inc. ADV’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $712,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after buying an additional 842,884 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,091,789 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,768,771,000 after acquiring an additional 1,563,533 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 14,738,956 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,587,576,000 after acquiring an additional 45,220 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its position in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,640,068 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,096,428,000 after acquiring an additional 360,171 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several recent research reports. DA Davidson downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $410.37 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $420.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $424.62. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.77 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.86, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.08 by $0.22. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.99 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $353,189,942.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.