Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. Trims Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jun 12th, 2023

Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 37.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,177 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 4,225 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,721,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Optas LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 25,001 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,996,000 after acquiring an additional 651 shares during the period. West Branch Capital LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,652,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Quilter Plc increased its position in Microsoft by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Quilter Plc now owns 844,299 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $202,480,000 after acquiring an additional 11,563 shares during the period. Seascape Capital Management grew its position in Microsoft by 41.9% in the third quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $677,000 after acquiring an additional 858 shares during the period. Finally, SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. now owns 200,299 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $48,036,000 after buying an additional 6,000 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Raymond James increased their target price on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Credit Suisse Group increased their target price on Microsoft from $350.00 to $420.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 31st. 888 restated a “maintains” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Moffett Nathanson lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $263.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.74.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Teri List sold 1,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $334.77, for a total transaction of $418,462.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $292,588.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Teri List sold 1,250 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 2nd. The stock was 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 owns 874 shares in the company, valued at approximately $292,588.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 110,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,169,370.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 51,331 shares of company stock valued at $15,867,278. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $326.79 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $338.56. The company has a market capitalization of $2.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $306.82 and its 200-day moving average is $271.29. 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.