Essential Planning LLC. Buys 79,592 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Essential Planning LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1,782.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 84,058 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 79,592 shares during the quarter. Essential Planning LLC.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $35,800,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 49,288 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total transaction of $5,985,968.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,100 shares in the company, valued at $19,481,631. The trade was a 23.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 471,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,038,664.12. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 94,243 shares of company stock worth $41,288,738 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $454.27 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $3.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $395.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $412.34. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. 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. Finally, 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. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.30.

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.