Community Trust & Investment Co. reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 207,171 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,424 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 4.5% of Community Trust & Investment Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Community Trust & Investment Co.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $49,684,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after purchasing an additional 2,383 shares in the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $351,001,000 after purchasing an additional 196,338 shares in the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Wolfe Research dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, February 27th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.30.
Microsoft Price Performance
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.48 earnings per share. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.
Insider Activity at Microsoft
In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Microsoft Company Profile
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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