Copeland Capital Management LLC Decreases Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Copeland Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 65,129 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,600 shares during the quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $28,025,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its position in Microsoft by 169.2% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $75,000. Bellevue Group AG boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 47.5% in the first quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $145,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $505.43.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $447.27 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $364.13 and a one year high of $468.35. The business has a fifty day moving average of $424.16 and a 200 day moving average of $427.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.90, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

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.