WestEnd Advisors LLC Sells 5,317 Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

WestEnd Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 98,870 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 5,317 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 1.0% of WestEnd Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. WestEnd Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $37,115,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake 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 valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew 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 in the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tallon Kerry Patrick bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $1,375,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $605.00 to $613.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price target (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Microsoft from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $630.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $609.86.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total transaction of $7,330,880.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 98,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. The trade was a 14.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 54,743 shares of company stock worth $24,921,913. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of MSFT opened at $521.77 on Tuesday. Microsoft Corporation has a 52-week low of $344.79 and a 52-week high of $555.45. The business’s fifty day moving average is $498.05 and its 200-day moving average is $438.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.25, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.06.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%. The company had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.95 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

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.