Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 450 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jun 11th, 2023

Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. cut its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 318,146 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 450 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 3.5% of Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $76,298,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 worth $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,824,173,000 after buying an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $50,302,677,000 after buying an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% during the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 49,440,386 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $11,514,665,000 after buying an additional 208,765 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the third 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 Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $326.79 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $306.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $271.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $338.56.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th were given a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.47%.

Insider Activity

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MSFT. 888 restated a “maintains” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Credit Suisse Group upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $350.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 31st. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $340.00 to $375.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 30th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One equities research 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus 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.