Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Holdings Cut by B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jun 21st, 2023

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 8.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 310,923 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 27,577 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.9% of B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $74,566,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,824,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd 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 acquiring an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 112,158.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,017,948,000 after acquiring an additional 150,053,637 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 142,731,177 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $34,172,705,000 after acquiring an additional 3,268,917 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Microsoft from $337.00 to $400.00 in a report on Friday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Citigroup upped their price target on Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. UBS Group upped their price target on Microsoft from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Microsoft from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $333.23.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $338.05 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $351.47. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $314.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $275.74.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion during 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%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.22 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 17th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 16th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.47%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $1,550,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,331 shares of company stock worth $15,867,278 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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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.