Phillips Financial Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 16th, 2023

Phillips Financial Management LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 18.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,544 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 404 shares during the period. Phillips Financial Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $610,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after purchasing an additional 6,129,708 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951,554 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after purchasing an additional 556,020 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 49,440,386 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,514,665,000 after purchasing an additional 208,765 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 40,345,546 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,396,477,000 after purchasing an additional 215,103 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $286.14 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $268.51 and a 200-day moving average of $249.95. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $294.18.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The business’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.48 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. UBS Group set a $275.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday. 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 research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $292.95.

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.