Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by American Institute for Advanced Investment Management LLP

American Institute for Advanced Investment Management LLP lowered its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 9,554 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 97 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 3.0% of American Institute for Advanced Investment Management LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. American Institute for Advanced Investment Management LLP’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,027,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. boosted its position 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 worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its position 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 worth $1,204,664,000 after acquiring an additional 49,735 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 32,471 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,972,000 after acquiring an additional 1,068 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ignite Planners LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 24,002 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,328,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Scotiabank started coverage on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 target price for the company. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. DA Davidson raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $510.59.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $391.26 on Friday. The company 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 Co. has a one year low of $376.91 and a one year high of $468.35. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $408.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $419.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company earned $2.93 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.