Triune Financial Partners LLC Takes $432,000 Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Triune Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 1,003 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $432,000. Microsoft accounts for 0.1% of Triune Financial Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its position in 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 buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $75,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position 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 buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MayTech Global Investments LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $200,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on MSFT shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $511.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. The trade was a 4.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $418.95 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $380.38 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $428.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $427.39. The company has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.57, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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 given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board 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.