Surience Private Wealth LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Surience Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 512.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,053 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,249 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 6.0% of Surience Private Wealth LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Surience Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,659,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP raised its holdings in Microsoft by 3.0% in the second quarter. Nicholas Investment Partners LP now owns 39,743 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,763,000 after buying an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.6% in the second quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 791,058 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $353,564,000 after buying an additional 34,760 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% during the second quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 11,907 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,322,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $437.32, for a total transaction of $874,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 51,852 shares in the company, valued at $22,675,916.64. This trade represents a 3.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 7,000 shares of company stock worth $3,070,340. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on MSFT. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $397.90 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $423.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $423.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $385.58 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.83%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

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.