Montag A & Associates Inc. Grows Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Montag A & Associates Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 144,747 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 463 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.9% of Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $61,011,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,567,258,000 after purchasing an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 76.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,439,407,000 after buying an additional 4,568,539 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after purchasing an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 46.1% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after acquiring an additional 2,222,483 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $23,490,417,000 after buying an additional 2,125,030 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on MSFT. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Wedbush reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $475.00 price objective (down previously from $500.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 20th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 price objective for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $499.97.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $367.78 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $389.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $413.21. 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 stock has a market cap of $2.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.90%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

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.