Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund

Posted by on Apr 24th, 2023

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 779,516 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,878 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 2.4% of Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $186,944,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $66,852,000 after buying an additional 20,553,188 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in Microsoft by 13.8% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,524,669,000 after buying an additional 3,757,500 shares in the last quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 17,734.7% during the 4th quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC now owns 3,763,300 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,351,000 after buying an additional 3,742,199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Microsoft by 73.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 8,172,257 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,903,319,000 after buying an additional 3,471,095 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $325.00 in a research report on Friday. KeyCorp upped their price target on Microsoft from $316.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 price target on Microsoft and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Microsoft from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.74.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.1 %

Microsoft stock opened at $285.76 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $294.18. 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 stock has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s fifty 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, beating 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 company had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.48 earnings per share. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. 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 (DPR) is currently 30.22%.

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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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