ACT Advisors LLC. Decreases Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

ACT Advisors LLC. lowered its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,530 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 291 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 0.7% of ACT Advisors LLC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. ACT Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,325,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. IFS Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $62,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. UBS Group reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $524.71.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $491.09 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.65 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.04. Microsoft Corporation has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $500.76. The business has a fifty day moving average of $457.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $423.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 35.79%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.94 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.66%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were 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 owned 471,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,038,664.12. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $458.18, for a total value of $7,330,880.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 98,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. This represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock worth $60,224,683 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.