Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stake Raised by Cedrus LLC

Cedrus LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 24.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,534 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,295 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 1.0% of Cedrus LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Cedrus LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,812,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth about $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after purchasing an additional 4,824,436 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 77.6% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,642,931,000 after acquiring an additional 2,744,900 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 31,648.5% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,871,892 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 128.4% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,160,657 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,412,656,000 after acquiring an additional 1,776,825 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $449.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $3.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $364.13 and a one year high of $468.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $422.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $427.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 0.74%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. UBS Group cut their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup cut their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Oppenheimer downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $504.36.

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.