Brainard Capital Management LLC Invests $979,000 in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jun 2nd, 2023

Brainard Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 4,081 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $979,000. Microsoft makes up approximately 0.8% of Brainard Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Optas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Optas LLC now owns 25,001 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,996,000 after buying an additional 651 shares in the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,652,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 858 shares in the last quarter. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $13,999,000. Finally, Sage Mountain Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 13,880 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,329,000 after purchasing an additional 832 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $332.58 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $300.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $267.26. The stock has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $335.94.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.22 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 29.47%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $1,550,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at $34,169,370.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,081 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.54, for a total transaction of $1,588,015.74. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 94,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,481,273.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,081 shares of company stock worth $15,448,816 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on MSFT shares. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $325.00 to $347.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Microsoft from $340.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Moffett Nathanson boosted their price target on Microsoft from $263.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $329.01.

About Microsoft

(Get Rating)

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.