Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by Malaga Cove Capital LLC

Malaga Cove Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 20.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 4,987 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 838 shares during the period. Malaga Cove Capital LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,146,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Ironsides Asset Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 23.3% in the third quarter. Ironsides Asset Advisors LLC now owns 3,385 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,457,000 after purchasing an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 4.9% in the third quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,601 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $8,004,000 after acquiring an additional 866 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% in the third quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 18,126 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,799,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Blake Schutter Theil Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter valued at approximately $3,798,000. Finally, Prudent Investors Network Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 5.2% during the third quarter. Prudent Investors Network Inc. now owns 33,843 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,562,000 after buying an additional 1,667 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on MSFT. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. KeyCorp raised 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. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $511.62.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $424.56 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $428.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $427.61. The firm has a market capitalization 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. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $371.19 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock valued at $17,383,892. 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.