Beam Wealth Advisors Inc. Sells 624 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Beam Wealth Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 11,458 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 624 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.5% of Beam Wealth Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Beam Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,829,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. IFS Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the period. Avondale Wealth Management lifted its position in Microsoft by 144.4% during the 4th quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 110 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth $62,000. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $141,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total transaction of $2,599,020.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 471,036 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $449.14 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.16, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $391.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $411.86. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month 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.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.