L.K. Benson & Company P.C. Has $598,000 Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

L.K. Benson & Company P.C. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 17.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,592 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the period. L.K. Benson & Company P.C.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $598,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,650 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,496,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. increased its stake in Microsoft by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $133,023,000 after buying an additional 18,052 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc. now owns 17,426 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,345,000 after buying an additional 1,268 shares during the last quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 147.9% in the 4th quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 1,748 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $737,000 after buying an additional 1,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intellus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $16,075,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $521.77 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.88 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $498.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $438.72. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.35 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.44% and a net margin of 36.15%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.95 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $61,208,127.76. The trade was a 13.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 16,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 98,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,906,221.80. This trade represents a 14.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 54,743 shares of company stock worth $24,921,913. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $585.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $650.00 price objective (up previously from $600.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $609.86.

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.