Genesee Capital Advisors LLC Sells 492 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Genesee Capital Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,457 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 492 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.5% of Genesee Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Genesee Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,209,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,645,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $882,816,000 after purchasing an additional 31,401 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $41,318,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares during the last quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 55.9% in the second quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd lifted its position in Microsoft by 10.9% in the third quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 106,292 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,737,000 after buying an additional 10,421 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Mizuho increased their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $505.43.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $447.27 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $364.13 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $424.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $427.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company 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.