Meritage Portfolio Management decreased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 243,371 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 10,096 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 4.6% of Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $58,365,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 35,465.9% in the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $66,852,000 after buying an additional 20,553,188 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after purchasing an additional 6,129,708 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 13.8% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,524,669,000 after purchasing an additional 3,757,500 shares during the last quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 17,734.7% in the 4th quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC now owns 3,763,300 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,351,000 after purchasing an additional 3,742,199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 73.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 3,471,095 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.
Insider Activity at Microsoft
In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 stock was 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 owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,767 shares of company stock worth $12,461,061 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.
Microsoft Stock Down 0.5 %
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.22 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 29.47%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of brokerages have commented on MSFT. StockNews.com raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 27th. Moffett Nathanson increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $263.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $295.00 to $337.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $322.88.
Microsoft Company Profile
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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