William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. Takes $1.54 Million Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,439 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $1,537,000. Microsoft makes up about 1.0% of William B. Walkup & Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Granite FO LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,707,000. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC now owns 17,023 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,609,000 after purchasing an additional 466 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.5% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,647,713 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $736,508,000 after buying an additional 40,286 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.6% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 818,913 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $366,013,000 after buying an additional 72,007 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northeast Financial Consultants Inc increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the second quarter. Northeast Financial Consultants Inc now owns 139,679 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $62,429,000 after acquiring an additional 1,392 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $426.89 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.22, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $421.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $425.43. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $362.90 and a twelve month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its 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 return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS for the current year.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders 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 represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.75%.

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.