Financial & Tax Architects LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Financial & Tax Architects LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,061 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 537 shares during the quarter. Financial & Tax Architects LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,262,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 45.3% in the second quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,097 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,172,000 after acquiring an additional 2,214 shares in the last quarter. L & S Advisors Inc lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 22.9% in the second quarter. L & S Advisors Inc now owns 59,381 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $26,540,000 after acquiring an additional 11,082 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.2% in the second quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 200,591 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $89,654,000 after acquiring an additional 6,207 shares in the last quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $262,000. Finally, Firestone Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% in the second quarter. Firestone Capital Management now owns 7,611 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,402,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. KeyCorp raised their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Mizuho increased their price target on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft 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 completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This trade 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 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.0 %

MSFT opened at $410.37 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $344.77 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $420.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $424.71. The firm has a market cap of $3.05 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.39%.

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

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.