Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Lifted by FFG Partners LLC

FFG Partners LLC raised its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,797 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 531 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 6.2% of FFG Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. FFG Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $17,618,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the first 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 position in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second 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 period. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,890,530,000 after buying an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Down 3.6 %

MSFT stock opened at $359.84 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $399.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $417.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.68 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.97, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $359.48 and a one year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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 issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Westpark Capital began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target 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. Four 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 presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $508.86.

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.