Blue Whale Capital LLP Cuts Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Blue Whale Capital LLP lowered its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 218,014 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 8.6% of Blue Whale Capital LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Blue Whale Capital LLP’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $97,441,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after purchasing an additional 4,824,436 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 77.6% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,642,931,000 after purchasing an additional 2,744,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth $846,072,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.2 %

MSFT stock opened at $425.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $420.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $424.80. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $360.36 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The company has a market capitalization of $3.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.99 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 27.39%.

Microsoft declared 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 reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related 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 owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,552,000. 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 available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the company’s 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 owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485. Corporate 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.