Advisory Alpha LLC Purchases 3,239 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Advisory Alpha LLC increased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 18.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,521 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,239 shares during the quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,717,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after acquiring an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,152,647,000 after acquiring an additional 2,456,190 shares during the period. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $679,928,000. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.2% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,749,275,000 after purchasing an additional 1,796,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 243.6% during the 3rd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,151,555 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $679,353,000 after purchasing an additional 1,525,367 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Macquarie increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $434.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $399.04 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $292.73 and a 52-week high of $430.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $414.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $387.17. The company has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.08, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.32 earnings per share. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.12%.

About Microsoft

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.