Callahan Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Callahan Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 116,061 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 323 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 4.9% of Callahan Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Callahan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $49,941,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 169.2% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter worth approximately $75,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 10.1% in the third quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $145,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MayTech Global Investments LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $200,000. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. 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 report on Monday, September 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $511.62.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 transaction of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $422.37 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $428.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $427.79. The company has a market capitalization of $3.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $369.01 and a 1 year 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 results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The firm 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 quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding 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 typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft 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.