Clarendon Private LLC Buys Shares of 12,045 Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Clarendon Private LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 12,045 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $5,077,000. Microsoft makes up about 5.3% of Clarendon Private LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 48,526.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after purchasing an additional 38,422,466 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Microsoft by 76.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,439,407,000 after buying an additional 4,568,539 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,790,682,000 after buying an additional 3,264,648 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its stake in Microsoft by 46.1% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,032,859,000 after buying an additional 2,222,483 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $23,490,417,000 after purchasing an additional 2,125,030 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 24th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.43.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $388.56 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $376.91 and a 12 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. The business’s 50 day moving average is $412.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $420.64. The company has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.93 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

Microsoft Profile

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.