Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is NBT Bank N A NY’s Largest Position

NBT Bank N A NY decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 213,863 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,415 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 6.3% of NBT Bank N A NY’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. NBT Bank N A NY’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $90,143,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its stake 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 valued at $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the 3rd quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,689,356 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,890,530,000 after buying an additional 49,288 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% during the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,749 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,334,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Microsoft from $502.00 to $512.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $509.16.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $453.13 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $393.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $412.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.48, a P/E/G 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. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.94 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.66%.

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.