Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stake Lifted by Palumbo Wealth Management LLC

Palumbo Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 16,270 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,204 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.7% of Palumbo Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,001,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Austin Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,593 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,080,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Nikulski Financial Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 2.1% in the third quarter. Nikulski Financial Inc. now owns 20,546 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $8,841,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares during the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.6% in the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 770,330 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $331,473,000 after purchasing an additional 4,471 shares during the period. Tilson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at approximately $966,000. Finally, Vinland Capital Management Gestora de Recursos LTDA. lifted its position in Microsoft by 38.5% in the third quarter. Vinland Capital Management Gestora de Recursos LTDA. now owns 1,800 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $775,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Mizuho boosted their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. DA Davidson cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Loop Capital increased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.90.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value 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 approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $424.83 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $428.90 and its 200-day moving average is $428.85. The company has a market capitalization of $3.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $366.50 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has initiated a stock 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is 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.