LifeGuide Financial Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

LifeGuide Financial Advisors LLC lowered its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 16.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 866 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 176 shares during the period. LifeGuide Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $373,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $882,816,000 after buying an additional 31,401 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA grew its position in Microsoft by 0.9% during the third quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $41,318,000 after buying an additional 880 shares during the period. New Harbor Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 55.9% in the 2nd quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $561,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. now owns 430,730 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $192,515,000 after purchasing an additional 8,290 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Investment Management LLC now owns 156,258 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $69,840,000 after buying an additional 5,176 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This trade represents a 4.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. This represents a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.6 %

Microsoft stock opened at $415.49 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $422.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $426.13. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $362.90 and a 52 week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.83 dividend. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research reports. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average 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.