Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC Has $4.44 Million Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 12.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,306 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,161 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 2.3% of Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 7.6% in the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 183,153 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $78,810,000 after purchasing an additional 12,870 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 12.4% during the 3rd quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 18,769 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,076,000 after buying an additional 2,068 shares during the period. Heritage Oak Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 636.4% in the 3rd quarter. Heritage Oak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,008 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,306,000 after acquiring an additional 8,649 shares during the last quarter. Busey Bank boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Busey Bank now owns 472,040 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $203,119,000 after acquiring an additional 5,287 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Silver Oak Securities Incorporated grew its holdings in Microsoft by 26.6% during the third quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 19,790 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,386,000 after purchasing an additional 4,153 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $508.46.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total transaction of $10,425,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $436.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.02, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $427.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $428.42. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $366.50 and a 1-year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results 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 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 analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.99 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Company 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.