ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC Purchases 241,819 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 53.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 693,056 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 241,819 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 6.3% of ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $292,123,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,427 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,866,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,050 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $443,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Sequent Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sequent Asset Management LLC now owns 1,983 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $853,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Cypress Point Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cypress Point Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,208 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,380,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Riverstone Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% in the third quarter. Riverstone Advisors LLC now owns 4,510 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,941,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total transaction of $32,703,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at $207,995,413.95. This trade represents a 13.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on MSFT. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wedbush boosted their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $438.73 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The company has a 50 day moving average of $389.19 and a 200 day moving average of $411.74. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.26 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.66%.

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.