Barings LLC Acquires 735 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Barings LLC lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,846 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 735 shares during the period. Barings LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,415,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,515,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $133,023,000 after acquiring an additional 18,052 shares during the last quarter. Centric Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 16,156 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,789,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,274,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 9,250,128 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,980,299,000 after purchasing an additional 217,509 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $452.94 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $392.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $412.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $344.79 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results 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 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.94 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.73%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays increased their target price on Microsoft from $430.00 to $494.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $507.77.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total value of $2,599,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 471,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.