Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc

Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 77.7% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 977 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,410 shares during the period. Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $367,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $62,000. Finally, IFS Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Tigress Financial upped 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. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Mizuho upped their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush raised their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $524.71.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.5%

Microsoft stock opened at $498.25 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $459.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $423.37. The company has a market capitalization of $3.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.50, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37. Microsoft Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $344.79 and a fifty-two week high of $500.76.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 32.74%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.94 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 134,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $61,208,127.76. This represents a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 471,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,038,664.12. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.