Weatherly Asset Management L. P. reduced its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 113,674 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,958 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 3.7% of Weatherly Asset Management L. P.’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Weatherly Asset Management L. P.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $27,261,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Safeguard Financial LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Safeguard Financial LLC now owns 2,005 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $481,000 after buying an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Grassi Investment Management boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Grassi Investment Management now owns 162,888 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $39,064,000 after buying an additional 577 shares in the last quarter. Kwmg LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Kwmg LLC now owns 21,062 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,051,000 after buying an additional 655 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $549,000. Finally, McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. now owns 9,026 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,165,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Wedbush raised their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 24th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on Microsoft from $285.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.30.
Microsoft Trading Up 0.6 %
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.48 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.99%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft
In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.
About Microsoft
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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