Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC Boosts Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jun 3rd, 2023

Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,352 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,203 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 1.7% of Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,356,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. now owns 3,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $898,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Lokken Investment Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Lokken Investment Group LLC now owns 11,976 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,076,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Denver Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Denver Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,348 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $323,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Daniels&Tansey LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Daniels&Tansey LLP now owns 1,488 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $357,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the first quarter. Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,536 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,632,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.8 %

MSFT stock opened at $335.40 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.88. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $337.50. The company has a 50-day moving average of $302.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $267.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Microsoft from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $337.00 to $400.00 in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $330.72.

Insider Activity

In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.87, for a total value of $1,584,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 89,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,305,363.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total transaction of $9,182,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.87, for a total transaction of $1,584,350.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 89,328 shares in the company, valued at $28,305,363.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 50,081 shares of company stock worth $15,448,816. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.