Kathmere Capital Management LLC Has $9.87 Million Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Kathmere Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,080 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,306 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.0% of Kathmere Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Kathmere Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $9,869,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 13.0% in the second quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 29,214 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,057,000 after acquiring an additional 3,353 shares during the last quarter. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.9% in the second quarter. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX now owns 5,415 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,420,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 12.5% in the second quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC now owns 28,391 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $12,689,000 after acquiring an additional 3,153 shares during the last quarter. Core Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 18.9% during the second quarter. Core Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,848 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $826,000 after buying an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 14.1% during the second quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 10,699 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,782,000 after buying an additional 1,324 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $425.20 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $421.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $425.44. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $362.90 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 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 $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS 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 of this dividend 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 24.75%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding 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 a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Microsoft 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at $328,473,703.53. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 197,829 shares of company stock worth $80,966,837. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.