Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Holdings Lifted by GFS Advisors LLC

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 24th, 2023

GFS Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 21.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 49,350 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,560 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 2.7% of GFS Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. GFS Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,835,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd raised its position 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 worth $25,356,000 after acquiring an additional 71,769 shares during the period. Seascape Capital Management raised its position in Microsoft by 41.9% in the third quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $677,000 after acquiring an additional 858 shares during the period. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 9.2% in the third quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,751 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,943,000 after acquiring an additional 650 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 2,789,479 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $649,670,000 after acquiring an additional 37,545 shares during the period. Finally, RMR Wealth Builders raised its position in Microsoft by 9.0% in the third quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 35,150 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,186,000 after acquiring an additional 2,894 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $285.76 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.75, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.93. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $270.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $251.60. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $213.43 and a twelve month 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. The business 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.48 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.3 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.95%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on MSFT shares. UBS Group set a $275.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 20th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, March 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 6th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $298.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

About Microsoft

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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.