Wealth Group Ltd. Sells 133 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Wealth Group Ltd. cut its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,346 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 133 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,009,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,453 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,119,000 after acquiring an additional 566 shares during the period. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 10,266 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,586,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares during the period. First PREMIER Bank increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 23,504 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,505,000 after acquiring an additional 977 shares during the period. Finally, Corundum Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. Corundum Group Inc. now owns 19,092 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,533,000 after acquiring an additional 1,447 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. UBS Group boosted their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $511.62.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $418.95 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $428.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $427.53. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $380.38 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.