Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Increased by AlphaCore Capital LLC

AlphaCore Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,119 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,205 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 2.7% of AlphaCore Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. AlphaCore Capital LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $12,099,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its stake 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 purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth about $45,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the third quarter worth approximately $62,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at about $75,000. Finally, Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $145,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on MSFT. UBS Group increased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Microsoft from $548.00 to $540.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $512.66.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $447.24 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $385.58 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $431.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $425.08. The company has a market cap of $3.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.90, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.9 EPS 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 dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 27.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This represents 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 currently owned by insiders.

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.