Brown Financial Advisors Invests $5.36 Million in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 11,995 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $5,361,000. Microsoft makes up 2.4% of Brown Financial Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Gordian Capital Singapore Pte Ltd lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gordian Capital Singapore Pte Ltd now owns 49,914 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $22,309,000 after purchasing an additional 912 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,486,000. Pensioenfonds Rail & OV lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 30.7% in the 2nd quarter. Pensioenfonds Rail & OV now owns 135,047 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $60,359,000 after purchasing an additional 31,742 shares during the last quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 7.5% during the second quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC now owns 152,014 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $67,943,000 after acquiring an additional 10,574 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sycomore Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 14.3% during the second quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 156,322 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,683,000 after buying an additional 19,501 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $415.00 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $362.90 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.91. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $422.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $425.53.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released 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. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. The trade was a 8.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,552,000. The trade was a 4.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

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.