Peak Financial Advisors LLC Purchases 6,981 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Peak Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 899.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,757 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,981 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.7% of Peak Financial Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Peak Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,338,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. This trade represents a 8.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. This trade represents a 4.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 209,431 shares of company stock valued at $85,796,688. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.2 %

MSFT opened at $422.99 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 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. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $362.90 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $421.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $426.39.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.99 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Oppenheimer downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

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.