Yardley Wealth Management LLC Cuts Holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Yardley Wealth Management LLC reduced its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 70.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 880 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,094 shares during the quarter. Yardley Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $330,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,250 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,502,000 after buying an additional 402 shares during the period. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 25,676 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,638,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the period. Insight Inv LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 376.3% in the 1st quarter. Insight Inv LLC now owns 50,130 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $18,818,000 after buying an additional 39,605 shares during the period. Nicholson Meyer Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth $1,028,000. Finally, Nabity Jensen Investment Management Inc raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Nabity Jensen Investment Management Inc now owns 6,762 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,538,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The stock was 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 is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total value of $9,756,055.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,208,127.76. This trade represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 46,350 shares of company stock valued at $21,493,447. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Wedbush raised their price objective on Microsoft from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Microsoft from $581.00 to $639.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 price objective (up from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $609.86.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $520.58 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a 50 day moving average of $500.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $439.91. Microsoft Corporation has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $555.45. The company has a market cap of $3.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.17, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.06.

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