Howard Wealth Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by on Apr 24th, 2023

Howard Wealth Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,442 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 81 shares during the period. Howard Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $825,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd boosted its stake in Microsoft by 199.7% in the third quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,356,000 after acquiring an additional 71,769 shares in the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 41.9% in the third quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $677,000 after buying an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.2% in the third quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,751 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,943,000 after buying an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 2,789,479 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $649,670,000 after buying an additional 37,545 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RMR Wealth Builders raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.0% in the third quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 35,150 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,186,000 after buying an additional 2,894 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $325.00 in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $298.74.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $285.76 on Monday. 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 company 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. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $294.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $270.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $251.60.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.48 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.3 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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