Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Wealth Effects LLC

Wealth Effects LLC cut its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,930 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 698 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.8% of Wealth Effects LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Wealth Effects LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,979,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 76.6% during 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 boosted its holdings in 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 last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 46.1% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after acquiring an additional 2,222,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,490,417,000 after acquiring an additional 2,125,030 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MSFT. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, January 24th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a report on Thursday, March 13th. 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 presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.43.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1 %

Microsoft stock opened at $387.82 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $410.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $420.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.23, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $376.91 and a 52 week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS 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 business earned $2.93 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 26.73%.

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.