Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC Cuts Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jun 21st, 2023

Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 2.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,844 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 60 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 0.4% of Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $820,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 71.4% in the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $347.00 to $385.00 in a research report on Friday, June 9th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $316.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $322.00 in a research report on Monday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.23.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, Director Teri List sold 1,250 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the director now directly owns 874 shares in the company, valued at $292,588.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $292,588.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at $35,952,107.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,331 shares of company stock worth $15,867,278 over the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $338.05 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a current ratio of 1.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $351.47. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $314.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $275.74.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 16th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.47%.

Microsoft Profile

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Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.