Providence Capital Advisors LLC Has $16.81 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Providence Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 37,606 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.7% of Providence Capital Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Providence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $16,808,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its stake in Microsoft by 169.2% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $75,000. Bellevue Group AG boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 47.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 241.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $169,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MayTech Global Investments LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $200,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $422.54 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $421.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $424.95. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $360.36 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 24.75%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the company’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 value of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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.