Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Lifeworks Advisors LLC’s 9th Largest Position

Lifeworks Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 18,820 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,627 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 1.4% of Lifeworks Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Lifeworks Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,933,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC boosted its holdings in 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. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. raised its position in Microsoft by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $133,023,000 after purchasing an additional 18,052 shares in the last quarter. Centric Wealth Management raised its position in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 16,156 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,789,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,274,000 after buying an additional 294 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 9,250,128 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,980,299,000 after buying an additional 217,509 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 476,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $452.94 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.47, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $392.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $412.14. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

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.