Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Boosted by River & Mercantile Asset Management LLP

Posted by Defense World Staff on Mar 16th, 2023

River & Mercantile Asset Management LLP grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 22.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,545 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,145 shares during the period. River & Mercantile Asset Management LLP’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,249,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 35,465.9% in the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $66,852,000 after buying an additional 20,553,188 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 11,434.2% in the second quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. now owns 5,460,976 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $21,263,000 after buying an additional 5,413,630 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter worth about $981,125,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 13.8% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,524,669,000 after buying an additional 3,757,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8 %

MSFT opened at $265.44 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $315.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $250.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $245.23. The company has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The business’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.48 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.02%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 30.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Fundamental Research decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $269.73 to $259.47 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada set a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.58.

Microsoft Profile

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.