City Center Advisors LLC Has $404,000 Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

City Center Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 938 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 25 shares during the period. City Center Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $404,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Microsoft by 62.0% in the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 113,168 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $47,612,000 after purchasing an additional 43,327 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Group LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 4,709 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,981,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 27.8% during the 1st quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 64,318 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $27,060,000 after acquiring an additional 13,981 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Colony Family Offices LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter valued at $281,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,552,000. This trade represents a 4.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 183,431 shares of company stock worth $74,956,968. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $414.17 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 firm has a market cap of $3.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s fifty day moving average is $422.21 and its 200-day moving average is $426.05. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $362.90 and a 52-week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.75%.

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.