Midwest Financial Group LLC Grows Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Midwest Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,442 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.3% of Midwest Financial Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Midwest Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,980,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after acquiring an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 76.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,439,407,000 after purchasing an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after acquiring an additional 3,264,648 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its position in Microsoft by 46.1% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,032,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,490,417,000 after buying an additional 2,125,030 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.43.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $378.77 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company has a market cap of $2.82 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $413.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $420.77. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $376.91 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 quarter last year, the company earned $2.93 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

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.