Covea Finance Has $140.68 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Covea Finance reduced its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 333,762 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 24,800 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 6.3% of Covea Finance’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Covea Finance’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $140,681,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $113,399,000 after buying an additional 18,544 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in 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 buying an additional 31,401 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $41,318,000 after buying an additional 880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $32,830,000 after buying an additional 1,489 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MSFT. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets cut 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. TD Cowen cut their target price on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.0 %

Microsoft stock opened at $404.00 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.53, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $385.58 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $424.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $423.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.93 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.82%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other 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 owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,000 shares of company stock valued at $3,493,820. 0.03% of the stock is currently 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.