Clark & Stuart Inc Takes $1.16 Million Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Clark & Stuart Inc bought a new position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,745 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $1,157,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its stake 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. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP increased its holdings in Microsoft by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP now owns 39,743 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,763,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. Advisor OS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 7.2% during the second quarter. Advisor OS LLC now owns 37,802 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,896,000 after purchasing an additional 2,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 19,577 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,750,000 after purchasing an additional 383 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $409.40 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $428.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $422.85. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $385.58 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.93 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 34,000 shares of company stock worth $14,333,540. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.