Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Ellerson Group Inc. ADV

Ellerson Group Inc. ADV cut its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 631 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 30 shares during the period. Ellerson Group Inc. ADV’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $266,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its holdings 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 last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% in the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,890,530,000 after acquiring an additional 49,288 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,749 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,334,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $452.94 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The business has a 50-day moving average of $392.40 and a 200-day moving average of $412.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The company has a market capitalization of $3.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.47, a PEG 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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 given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.66%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $507.77.

About Microsoft

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.