Plimoth Trust Co. LLC Cuts Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Plimoth Trust Co. LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 51,626 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 349 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 5.6% of Plimoth Trust Co. LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $21,760,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its position in Microsoft by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,204,664,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares during the last quarter. Hoffman Alan N Investment Management lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Hoffman Alan N Investment Management now owns 77,217 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $33,226,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SignalPoint Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 398.0% during the 3rd quarter. SignalPoint Asset Management LLC now owns 71,438 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $30,577,000 after purchasing an additional 57,093 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Loop Capital raised their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.59.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1 %

MSFT opened at $391.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $408.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $419.65. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $376.91 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released 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 net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.93 EPS. Analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Microsoft Company 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.