River Street Advisors LLC Acquires 197 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

River Street Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,256 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 197 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 2.9% of River Street Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,274,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Net Worth Advisory Group acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 7.6% in the third quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,399,000 after purchasing an additional 18,544 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $882,816,000 after acquiring an additional 31,401 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $41,318,000 after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $32,830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $428.50 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $429.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $425.92. The firm has a market cap of $3.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.35, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.90. 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 $385.58 and a 52-week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com upgraded Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 17th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $509.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $512.93.

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.