Symmetry Partners LLC Decreases Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by on Mar 19th, 2023

Symmetry Partners LLC cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 74,448 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,520 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 1.1% of Symmetry Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Symmetry Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $17,854,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd increased its holdings in Microsoft by 199.7% in the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,356,000 after acquiring an additional 71,769 shares during the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management increased its holdings in Microsoft by 41.9% in the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $677,000 after acquiring an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. Verity & Verity LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 67,872 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,432,000 after acquiring an additional 4,081 shares during the last quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,751 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,943,000 after acquiring an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 2,789,479 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $649,670,000 after acquiring an additional 37,545 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $279.43 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $315.95. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $252.31 and its 200 day moving average is $245.43.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion for 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%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.48 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Wolfe Research decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $285.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 26th. Cowen cut their target price on Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $286.05.

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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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