Hendershot Investments Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Hendershot Investments Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 59,373 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 464 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 3.4% of Hendershot Investments Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Hendershot Investments Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $25,026,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake 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 worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,204,664,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the third 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 during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $359.84 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $359.48 and a 52-week 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 stock has a market cap of $2.68 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $399.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $417.18.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $2.93 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 26.73%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 target price for the company. Mizuho cut their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Westpark Capital assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $508.86.

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.