Blake Schutter Theil Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Blake Schutter Theil Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 8,827 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $3,798,000. Microsoft comprises 2.7% of Blake Schutter Theil Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Hendley & Co. Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hendley & Co. Inc. now owns 54,122 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $24,190,000 after purchasing an additional 1,813 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2,297.6% during the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 16,783 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,668,000 after buying an additional 16,083 shares during the last quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 96,422 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,096,000 after buying an additional 922 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.7% in the second quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 60,768 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $27,160,000 after buying an additional 1,006 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Mizuho boosted their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $511.62.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $424.56 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $428.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $427.61. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $371.19 and a one year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued 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 share repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s 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 owns 49,352 shares in the company, 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 worth $17,383,892 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.