Northwest Wealth Management LLC Buys 738 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Northwest Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,686 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 738 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.0% of Northwest Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Northwest Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,882,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. New Harbor Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 55.9% in the 2nd quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $561,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 1,307,487 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $550,086,000 after purchasing an additional 5,253 shares during the period. True Link Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 296.7% in the 1st 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 during the period. AMG National Trust Bank boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 19.0% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Finally, Spinnaker Investment Group LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the 1st 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. DA Davidson downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Argus upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $495.68.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $418.16 on Monday. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $324.39 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $419.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $424.54. The stock has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.02 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.74%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 a total of 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485 over the last ninety days. 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.