Charter Oak Capital Management LLC Acquires 40 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Charter Oak Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,962 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the quarter. Charter Oak Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,994,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,152,647,000 after purchasing an additional 2,456,190 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,625,201,000. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in Microsoft by 9.2% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,749,275,000 after acquiring an additional 1,796,956 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates raised its position in Microsoft by 0.8% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 10,671,615 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,369,562,000 after acquiring an additional 88,583 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $480.00 price target (up previously from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 26th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.2 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $406.66 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $413.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $390.88. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $303.40 and a one year high of $430.82. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.45 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.