Strid Group LLC Sells 145 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Oct 30th, 2023

Strid Group LLC decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 14.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 826 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 145 shares during the quarter. Strid Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $281,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sightline Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sightline Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,337 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $962,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Stevens Capital Partners boosted its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Stevens Capital Partners now owns 1,516 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $516,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,577 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,602,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 4,208 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,213,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Arbor Capital Management Inc. ADV boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Arbor Capital Management Inc. ADV now owns 7,166 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,074,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Microsoft from $411.00 to $433.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. HSBC raised Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $347.00 to $413.00 in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $320.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $384.34.

View Our Latest Stock Report on MSFT

Microsoft Trading Up 0.6 %

Microsoft stock opened at $329.81 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $366.78. The business’s fifty day moving average is $326.68 and its 200 day moving average is $324.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.91.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The software giant reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.34. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.79% and a net margin of 35.31%. The company had revenue of $56.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.35 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.11 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.91%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.33%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.20, for a total value of $16,860,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 588,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $198,301,924.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 26,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.37, for a total transaction of $8,778,426.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 198,373 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,941,369.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.20, for a total value of $16,860,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 588,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $198,301,924.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 115,049 shares of company stock valued at $38,195,619 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Microsoft

(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.