Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Holdings Boosted by American Capital Advisory LLC

American Capital Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,573 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 521 shares during the quarter. American Capital Advisory LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,107,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC now owns 14,073 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,290,000 after purchasing an additional 1,161 shares during the period. Andina Capital Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 19.3% in the 2nd quarter. Andina Capital Management LLC now owns 939 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $420,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. FCG Investment Co increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.4% in the second quarter. FCG Investment Co now owns 25,570 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,428,000 after purchasing an additional 851 shares during the period. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the second quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 253,594 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,344,000 after buying an additional 3,780 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Mizuho raised their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $511.62.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.3 %

Microsoft stock opened at $422.37 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $428.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $427.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $369.01 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.99 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Microsoft declared 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 buy up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.