Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Holdings Boosted by S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 6th, 2023

S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 10.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 32,211 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,950 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 3.3% of S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,725,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 35,465.9% in the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $66,852,000 after purchasing an additional 20,553,188 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 worth $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the last quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 11,434.2% during 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 purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at $981,125,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 13.8% during 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. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $284.34 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $307.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $263.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $247.60. 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 $2.12 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.93.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.22%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction 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 is accessible through this link. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft 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 directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Microsoft from $280.00 to $295.00 in a report on Monday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Microsoft from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 24th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Wedbush raised their price target on Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 24th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on Microsoft from $270.00 to $316.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.98.

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.