Manchester Financial Inc. trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,238 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 249 shares during the quarter. Manchester Financial Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,736,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after buying an additional 2,383 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $351,001,000 after buying an additional 196,338 shares during the period. Altus Wealth Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Powell Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the period. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. BNP Paribas lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $310.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Monday, April 24th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Microsoft from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Fundamental Research lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 2nd. Finally, Macquarie raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $260.00 to $325.00 in a research report 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.72.
Microsoft Trading Up 0.8 %
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period last year, the company posted $2.22 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm 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 dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.47%.
Insider Activity
In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at $35,952,107.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at $35,952,107.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.70, for a total value of $1,543,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 105,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,477,092.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,081 shares of company stock worth $15,448,816 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.
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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