Harbor Group Inc. Has $685,000 Position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Harbor Group Inc. reduced its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,824 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 30 shares during the period. Harbor Group Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $685,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Foster Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 11,924 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,476,000 after buying an additional 1,257 shares in the last quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. now owns 23,329 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,757,000 after acquiring an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Fjell Capital LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 9.7% during the first quarter. Fjell Capital LLC now owns 9,186 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,448,000 after acquiring an additional 812 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 39.2% in the first quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 157,234 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,024,000 after purchasing an additional 44,283 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 59.1% in the first quarter. Oak Asset Management LLC now owns 15,921 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,977,000 after purchasing an additional 5,917 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 134,888 shares in the company, valued at $61,208,127.76. This trade represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,930 shares in the company, valued at $20,339,590. This trade represents a 6.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $498.25 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $459.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $423.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $500.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.04.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 25.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $530.00 price objective (up previously from $482.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $525.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $524.71.

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.