Ellsworth Advisors LLC Sells 408 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 39.2% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 632 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 408 shares during the quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $282,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% during the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Bellevue Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 47.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at about $80,000. Finally, Cooksen Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $86,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at $353,189,942.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $353,189,942.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $219,349,953.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $430.59 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $309.45 and a one year high of $468.35. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $423.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $423.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27. The company has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $506.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $494.72.

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.