Scott Capital Advisors LLC Has $5.57 Million Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Scott Capital Advisors LLC lessened its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 14,850 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 417 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 1.7% of Scott Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. Scott Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,574,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,343,058,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 40,290.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 46,695,303 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,528,950,000 after purchasing an additional 46,579,693 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,096,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,788,816 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $288,336,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,431,988 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $485.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $565.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $541.79.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $510.05 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $477.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $428.49. Microsoft Corporation has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $514.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.42, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.04.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.94 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,930 shares in the company, valued at $20,339,590. This represents a 6.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Amy Coleman sold 13,243 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $452.01, for a total value of $5,985,968.43. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 43,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,481,631. This represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.