AFS Financial Group LLC Makes New $4.37 Million Investment in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 18th, 2023

AFS Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 18,214 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $4,368,000. Microsoft accounts for 3.1% of AFS Financial Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% in the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Fundamental Research reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $269.73 to $259.47 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 2nd. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 target price on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 2nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Microsoft from $305.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 target price on Microsoft in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Finally, Cowen cut their target price on Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $293.89.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $288.80 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $268.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $250.01. The stock has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $294.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.48 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. 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.