Oak Thistle LLC Buys 8,406 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Oak Thistle LLC raised its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 830.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 9,418 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,406 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.2% of Oak Thistle LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Oak Thistle LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,970,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Floyd Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $6,333,000. Define Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $424,000. Pines Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $8,156,000. Accurate Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,467 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,255,000 after acquiring an additional 1,269 shares during the period. Finally, Wynn Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Wynn Capital LLC now owns 12,158 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,125,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.96.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $408.25 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business’s 50 day moving average is $425.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $423.04. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $385.58 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.87, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.93 EPS. Research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.87, for a total transaction of $1,077,175.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 53,852 shares in the company, valued at $23,203,211.24. This represents a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,000 shares of company stock valued at $3,493,820. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.