Columbia Advisory Partners LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 29th, 2023

Columbia Advisory Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 23.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,790 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,099 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 1.3% of Columbia Advisory Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Columbia Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,388,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $31,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $61,000. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, 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 brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $295.00 to $337.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and thirty-three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $322.88.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $307.26 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $308.93. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $273.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $253.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 1.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.22 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.47%.

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.