Safeguard Financial LLC Grows Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by on Mar 22nd, 2023

Safeguard Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 15.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,005 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the period. Safeguard Financial LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $481,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the second quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,893,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Financial Advisors Network Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. Financial Advisors Network Inc. now owns 3,482 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $894,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the period. Donoghue Forlines LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.6% during the second quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $667,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% during the third quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 3,747 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $873,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fountainhead AM LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% during the second quarter. Fountainhead AM LLC now owns 4,196 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,078,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, 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 news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, 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. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. One 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.30.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $273.78 on Wednesday. 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 has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $254.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $245.52.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.22%.

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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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