Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,404 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.0% of Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,542,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 48,526.1% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,567,258,000 after purchasing an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after buying an additional 4,824,436 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 76.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,439,407,000 after buying an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,790,682,000 after buying an additional 3,264,648 shares during the period. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 46.1% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after buying an additional 2,222,483 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $397.90 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $385.58 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.04, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $423.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $423.05.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.93 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $430.87, for a total value of $1,077,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 53,852 shares in the company, valued at $23,203,211.24. This trade represents a 4.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In the last three months, insiders have sold 7,000 shares of company stock worth $3,070,340. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, January 27th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $425.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $510.96.

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.