Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC Buys 1,414 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Oct 14th, 2023

Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 13.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,777 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,414 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 0.7% of Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,010,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 1,951,554 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 200,523,373 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $57,810,889,000 after buying an additional 1,537,712 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after buying an additional 556,020 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 112,158.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,017,948,000 after buying an additional 150,053,637 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 24th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, September 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Redburn Partners dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $440.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $385.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, September 22nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $376.34.

View Our Latest Analysis on Microsoft

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $327.73 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $324.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $321.26. The firm has a market cap of $2.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.82, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $213.43 and a twelve month high of $366.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The software giant reported $2.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.55 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $56.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 34.15% and a return on equity of 38.70%. The business’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.23 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 10.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.07%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 38,234 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $328.43, for a total transaction of $12,557,192.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 800,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $262,963,391.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 38,234 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $328.43, for a total transaction of $12,557,192.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 800,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $262,963,391.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.20, for a total transaction of $16,860,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 588,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $198,301,924.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 115,049 shares of company stock valued at $38,195,619. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Profile

(Free Report)

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.