Equitable Trust Co. Buys 8,480 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Equitable Trust Co. lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 129,455 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,480 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 3.0% of Equitable Trust Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $54,565,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,515,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Oak Ridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,399,000 after purchasing an additional 18,544 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $32,830,000 after buying an additional 1,489 shares in the last quarter. Campbell Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,314,000. Finally, Evernest Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 389.2% during the third quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC now owns 53,770 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $23,137,000 after buying an additional 42,778 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. DA Davidson raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $508.00.

Microsoft Stock Up 10.1 %

MSFT opened at $390.49 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $2.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.44, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35. The business’s fifty day moving average is $392.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $415.17. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business earned $2.93 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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