Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. Boosts Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jun 3rd, 2023

Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,140,825 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 423 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 1.4% of Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $273,593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% during the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $54,000. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Macquarie raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $260.00 to $325.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $330.72.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total value of $9,182,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.70, for a total transaction of $1,543,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 105,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,477,092.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total value of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,952,107.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,081 shares of company stock worth $15,448,816 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $335.40 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.49 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 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. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $302.01 and its 200-day moving average is $267.91. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $337.50.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. 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 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 29.47%.

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.