Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Holdings Lifted by Welch Group LLC

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 3rd, 2023

Welch Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 0.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 231,167 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,032 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 3.9% of Welch Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $66,645,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. PayPay Securities Corp bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $54,000. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $61,000. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,081 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.54, for a total transaction of $1,588,015.74. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 94,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,481,273.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at $34,169,370.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 51,331 shares of company stock valued at $15,867,278. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $340.54 on Monday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $321.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $280.55. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $351.47. The company has a market cap of $2.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.89, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.22 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Microsoft from $316.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Microsoft from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Microsoft from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, 888 reiterated a “maintains” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $333.18.

Microsoft Profile

(Free Report)

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.