Passive Capital Management LLC. Invests $354,000 in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Passive Capital Management LLC. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 792 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $354,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $882,816,000 after buying an additional 31,401 shares during the period. New Harbor Financial Group LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 55.9% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 2.0% during the second quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. now owns 430,730 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $192,515,000 after acquiring an additional 8,290 shares during the last quarter. Quest Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 3.4% during the second quarter. Quest Investment Management LLC now owns 156,258 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $69,840,000 after buying an additional 5,176 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 25.7% during the second quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 250,657 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $112,031,000 after purchasing an additional 51,273 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. This trade represents a 1.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,784,292.95. This represents a 7.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 197,829 shares of company stock worth $80,966,837 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 2.8 %

Microsoft stock opened at $415.00 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $422.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $425.53. The firm has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $362.90 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.