Provident Wealth Management LLC Acquires 270 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Provident Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the period. Provident Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,144,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Microsoft in the first quarter valued at $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its position in Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,160,850,000 after buying an additional 4,824,436 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in Microsoft by 77.6% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,642,931,000 after buying an additional 2,744,900 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc bought a new position in Microsoft in the first quarter worth approximately $846,072,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MSFT. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $504.36.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $437.32, for a total value of $874,640.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 51,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,675,916.64. This represents a 3.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 98,578 shares of company stock worth $40,553,696. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $443.57 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market cap of $3.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.60, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a 50 day moving average of $421.16 and a 200-day moving average of $426.89. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $364.13 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.99 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.