Country Trust Bank Cuts Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 2nd, 2023

Country Trust Bank lessened its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 581,664 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 4,083 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 4.1% of Country Trust Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Country Trust Bank’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $139,495,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. DGS Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 19.9% during the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,422,000 after buying an additional 2,383 shares during the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its holdings in Microsoft by 20.8% during the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $351,001,000 after buying an additional 196,338 shares during the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% during the first quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,919,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 16.2% during the first quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $795,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 8.2% during the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 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 completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’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 value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.5 %

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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $260.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $246.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its 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. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.48 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $270.00 to $316.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 24th. One 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $288.73.

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.