Waycross Investment Management Co Sells 609 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Waycross Investment Management Co lowered its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,966 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 609 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 2.8% of Waycross Investment Management Co’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest position. Waycross Investment Management Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,997,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Corrigan Financial Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 12.6% in the third quarter. Corrigan Financial Inc. now owns 4,483 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,929,000 after acquiring an additional 503 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 38,804 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,685,000 after purchasing an additional 2,309 shares during the period. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 20,341 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,753,000 after purchasing an additional 396 shares in the last quarter. Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,620 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,418,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Finally, Curated Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 15,710 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,760,000 after buying an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on MSFT. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, DA Davidson cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. This trade represents a 6.84 % 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 0.6 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $415.49 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $362.90 and a 1 year 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. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $422.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $426.13.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued 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 dividend yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.