Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by Hofer & Associates. Inc

Posted by Defense World Staff on Mar 18th, 2023

Hofer & Associates. Inc raised its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 5.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,813 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 0.7% of Hofer & Associates. Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Hofer & Associates. Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $655,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after acquiring an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 54,799,110 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,074,064,000 after acquiring an additional 784,656 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 49,440,386 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,514,665,000 after acquiring an additional 208,765 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were 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 approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $286.05.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $279.43 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $315.95. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $252.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $245.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 1.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

Microsoft Company 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.