Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Milestone Asset Management LLC

Milestone Asset Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,626 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 101 shares during the quarter. Milestone Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,636,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Kaufman Rossin Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $855,000. USAdvisors Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. USAdvisors Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,702 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,403,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 43,754 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,442,000 after acquiring an additional 3,726 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 58.0% in the fourth quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 702,192 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $295,974,000 after acquiring an additional 257,889 shares during the period. Finally, VanderPol Investments L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. VanderPol Investments L.L.C. now owns 1,793 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $756,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 27th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.59.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $391.26 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $408.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $419.67. 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 $2.91 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $376.91 and a twelve 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, 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 prior year, the company earned $2.93 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

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.