Buckingham Capital Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jun 28th, 2023

Buckingham Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 73,314 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,540 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 3.4% of Buckingham Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Buckingham Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $21,137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted 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 in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 112,158.6% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,017,948,000 after buying an additional 150,053,637 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 142,731,177 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $34,172,705,000 after buying an additional 3,268,917 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $334.57 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $318.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $278.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.88. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $351.47.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.22 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 17th will be given a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 16th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 29.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $340.00 to $375.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $347.00 to $385.00 in a research note on Friday, June 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $322.00 in a research note on Monday, April 24th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $340.00 to $360.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $334.17.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $1,550,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 1st. The stock was 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 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 51,331 shares of company stock worth $15,867,278 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company 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.