Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 1st, 2023

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lowered its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 118,810 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,183 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 2.1% of Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $28,493,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $66,852,000 after acquiring an additional 20,553,188 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares in the last quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 11,434.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. now owns 5,460,976 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $21,263,000 after buying an additional 5,413,630 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth $981,125,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 13.8% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,524,669,000 after acquiring an additional 3,757,500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. StockNews.com started coverage on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on Microsoft from $270.00 to $316.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $288.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $288.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $315.95. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $260.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $246.82. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 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 business had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.48 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 30.22%.

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.