Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Purchases 27,286 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,094,318 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 27,286 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 5.3% of Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $882,755,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its position 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 worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Beck Bode LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 37.3% in the 2nd quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 39,951 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,856,000 after purchasing an additional 10,847 shares during the last quarter. Lavaca Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Lavaca Capital LLC now owns 7,062 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,156,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kowal Investment Group LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC now owns 17,848 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,977,000 after purchasing an additional 781 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.54.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $393.31 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $416.40 and a 200-day moving average of $421.87. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $381.00 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the company posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.