Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by Clarus Wealth Advisors

Posted by Defense World Staff on Mar 25th, 2023

Clarus Wealth Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,072 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the period. Clarus Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,161,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $66,852,000 after acquiring an additional 20,553,188 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares during the last quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 11,434.2% in the second quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. now owns 5,460,976 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $21,263,000 after buying an additional 5,413,630 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $981,125,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 13.8% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,524,669,000 after buying an additional 3,757,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’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 owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’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 owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’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 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 worth $1,728,111. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.0 %

MSFT opened at $280.57 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $256.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $246.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $315.95.

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 company had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. UBS Group set a $275.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, March 20th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, March 17th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.92.

Microsoft Company Profile

(Get Rating)

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.