Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Holdings Lowered by Congress Asset Management Co. MA

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 2nd, 2023

Congress Asset Management Co. MA trimmed its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 593,412 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,143 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 1.4% of Congress Asset Management Co. MA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Congress Asset Management Co. MA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $142,312,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% in the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after buying an additional 2,383 shares during the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its position in Microsoft by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $351,001,000 after purchasing an additional 196,338 shares during the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,919,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $795,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Wolfe Research lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, February 27th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of 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 issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $288.73.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $288.30 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $213.43 and a twelve month high of $315.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $260.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $246.78. The company has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid 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 yield of 0.94%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $31,614,975.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Microsoft

(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.