Crescent Sterling Ltd. Has $4.96 Million Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Crescent Sterling Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,518 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 305 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 4.7% of Crescent Sterling Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Crescent Sterling Ltd.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,956,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jamison Private Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Jamison Private Wealth Management Inc. now owns 64,618 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $27,805,000 after buying an additional 817 shares during the last quarter. CCG Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% in the third quarter. CCG Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,099 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,206,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the period. Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. now owns 7,039 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,029,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Acorn Creek Capital LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 32.5% during the 3rd quarter. Acorn Creek Capital LLC now owns 6,721 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,892,000 after purchasing an additional 1,647 shares during the period. Finally, Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda grew its holdings in Microsoft by 41.4% in the 3rd quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 28,546 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,283,000 after buying an additional 8,363 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Oppenheimer cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $504.36.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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 6.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $437.32, for a total value of $874,640.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 51,852 shares in the company, valued at $22,675,916.64. This trade represents a 3.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 98,578 shares of company stock worth $40,553,696. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $442.62 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $421.16 and a 200 day moving average of $426.89. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $364.13 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market cap of $3.29 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.99 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.