First PREMIER Bank Grows Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

First PREMIER Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,599 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 2.5% of First PREMIER Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. First PREMIER Bank’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,155,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,160,850,000 after purchasing an additional 4,824,436 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 77.6% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,642,931,000 after purchasing an additional 2,744,900 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter valued at about $846,072,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. DA Davidson cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $417.00 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $421.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $426.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $362.90 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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. 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 0.80%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $60.00 billion in 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 a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total transaction of $15,600,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 496,369 shares in the company, valued at $203,784,292.95. The trade was a 7.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $353,189,942.01. This represents a 8.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 183,431 shares of company stock worth $74,956,968. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.