Fairway Wealth LLC Purchases Shares of 586 Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 586 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $262,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hengehold Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Hengehold Capital Management LLC now owns 22,741 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,567,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. GuoLine Advisory Pte Ltd lifted its stake in Microsoft by 5.2% in the first quarter. GuoLine Advisory Pte Ltd now owns 240,900 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $101,351,000 after purchasing an additional 11,800 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 22.1% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 46,866 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $19,717,000 after acquiring an additional 8,475 shares during the period. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO raised its holdings in Microsoft by 25.9% during the 1st quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO now owns 11,736 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,938,000 after acquiring an additional 2,413 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC now owns 51,909 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $22,088,000 after acquiring an additional 1,277 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ: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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $420.69 and a 200 day moving average of $424.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.30.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

Microsoft announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Oppenheimer cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Argus boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

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