Alta Capital Management LLC Sells 12,055 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 24th, 2023

Alta Capital Management LLC cut its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 209,035 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 12,055 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 3.8% of Alta Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Alta Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $50,131,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 779,516 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $186,944,000 after acquiring an additional 23,878 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 1,200,701 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $288,589,000 after acquiring an additional 6,617 shares during the last quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. now owns 44,887 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,312,000 after acquiring an additional 3,369 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 38.6% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 2,307 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $556,000 after acquiring an additional 642 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vigilant Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vigilant Capital Management LLC now owns 166,879 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $40,021,000 after acquiring an additional 3,238 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 14th. Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 3rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $325.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $282.00 to $332.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $298.74.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. 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 quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $285.76 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $270.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $251.60. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $294.18.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 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 analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.3 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

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.