Westchester Capital Management Inc. Has $31.50 Million Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Westchester Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 73,200 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 5,458 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 7.7% of Westchester Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Westchester Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $31,498,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 61,115 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $26,298,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Rather & Kittrell Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.6% during the third quarter. Rather & Kittrell Inc. now owns 3,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,450,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. 5th Street Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter worth about $324,000. Klingman & Associates LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 8.4% during the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 30,111 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,957,000 after purchasing an additional 2,340 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Quarterback LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 5.1% during the third quarter. Wealth Quarterback LLC now owns 9,430 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,058,000 after buying an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $511.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $418.95 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $428.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $427.23. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $380.38 and a one year high of $468.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.