E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. Buys 240 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFTFree Report) by 118.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 443 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 240 shares during the period. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $167,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 112,158.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,017,948,000 after buying an additional 150,053,637 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $20,700,525,000. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $66,852,000 after acquiring an additional 20,553,188 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Microsoft by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 119,417,954 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $28,638,815,000 after purchasing an additional 14,652,150 shares during the period. Finally, Osaic Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 348.6% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 11,998,927 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $894,426,000 after purchasing an additional 9,324,182 shares in the last quarter. 69.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. BNP Paribas raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $420.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $432.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, November 20th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $415.00.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on Microsoft

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $417.32 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $269.52 and a one year high of $427.82. The company has a market cap of $3.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $404.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $369.70.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFTGet Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.32 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.12%.

Microsoft Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

Further Reading

Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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