OLD National Bancorp IN Grows Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

OLD National Bancorp IN increased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 317,930 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 3.3% of OLD National Bancorp IN’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. OLD National Bancorp IN’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $142,099,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,078,099 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,920,047,000. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Microsoft by 1.0% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after purchasing an additional 842,884 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 25,505,600 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,591,126,000 after purchasing an additional 277,881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 25,381,692 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,544,532,000 after purchasing an additional 403,409 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSFT. Argus upped their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $485.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $506.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $494.72.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total transaction of $6,009,869.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at $328,473,703.53. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $417.14 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $431.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $422.89. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $309.45 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.12, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.97%.

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.