Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 21.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 54,793 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 9,795 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 1.6% of Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $22,874,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Regatta Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Regatta Capital Group LLC now owns 22,439 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,656,000 after purchasing an additional 645 shares during the last quarter. Prospect Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 48.1% during the 3rd quarter. Prospect Financial Services LLC now owns 9,395 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,043,000 after purchasing an additional 3,050 shares during the last quarter. Oxinas Partners Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Oxinas Partners Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,344 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,451,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Magnus Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Magnus Financial Group LLC now owns 29,667 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,766,000 after purchasing an additional 449 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. now owns 10,723 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,614,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.87, for a total value of $1,077,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 53,852 shares in the company, valued at $23,203,211.24. This represents a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 96,578 shares of company stock worth $39,679,056 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $437.42 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $420.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $426.78. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $364.13 and a 12 month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. Analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft announced that its board 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

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.