Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Merriman Wealth Management LLC

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jun 11th, 2023

Merriman Wealth Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 32.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 96,212 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 45,356 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 1.2% of Merriman Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Merriman Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $23,073,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after purchasing an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 49,440,386 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,514,665,000 after purchasing an additional 208,765 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 40,345,546 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,396,477,000 after purchasing an additional 215,103 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $326.79 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.41, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $306.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $271.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a current ratio of 1.91. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $338.56.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly 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 firm 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.22 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th were issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 29.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Teri List sold 1,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $334.77, for a total value of $418,462.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 874 shares in the company, valued at approximately $292,588.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Teri List sold 1,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $334.77, for a total value of $418,462.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 874 shares in the company, valued at approximately $292,588.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,952,107.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 51,331 shares of company stock valued at $15,867,278. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Microsoft from $347.00 to $385.00 in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Microsoft from $337.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Friday, June 2nd. Finally, 888 reaffirmed a “maintains” rating on shares of Microsoft 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 issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.74.

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.