Lowery Thomas LLC Buys 102 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Lowery Thomas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 9.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,240 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $554,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. New Harbor Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 55.9% during the second quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 1,307,487 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $550,086,000 after buying an additional 5,253 shares in the last quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 296.7% in the first quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,027 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,264 shares in the last quarter. AMG National Trust Bank raised its stake in Microsoft by 19.0% in the second quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 81,502 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,427,000 after purchasing an additional 12,994 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spinnaker Investment Group LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 2.7% in the first quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 12,521 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,268,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $418.16 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $324.39 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $419.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $424.49.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The firm had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.02 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.74%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $506.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $495.68.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at $219,349,953.73. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.