Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Lifted by Northwest Investment Counselors LLC

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 2nd, 2023

Northwest Investment Counselors LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 82,607 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,112 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 5.7% of Northwest Investment Counselors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $19,811,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 199.7% during the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,356,000 after purchasing an additional 71,769 shares during the period. Seascape Capital Management increased its holdings in Microsoft by 41.9% in the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $677,000 after acquiring an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. Verity & Verity LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 67,872 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,432,000 after acquiring an additional 4,081 shares during the last quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,751 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,943,000 after acquiring an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 2,789,479 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $649,670,000 after acquiring an additional 37,545 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $288.30 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. 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 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $315.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $260.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $246.78.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.48 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.94%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 30.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 24th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $288.73.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The shares were 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 approximately $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The shares were 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 approximately $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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. In 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.

Microsoft Company 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.