Accordant Advisory Group Inc Buys 230 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Accordant Advisory Group Inc increased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,395 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 230 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.2% of Accordant Advisory Group Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Accordant Advisory Group Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,461,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 169.2% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the second quarter worth $75,000. Bellevue Group AG grew its position in Microsoft by 47.5% in the first quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $145,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $451.59 on Tuesday. 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 $3.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $366.50 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $425.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $427.76.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped 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. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $505.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892 in the last quarter. Corporate 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.