NorthStar Asset Management LLC NJ Sells 258 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

NorthStar Asset Management LLC NJ trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,499 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 258 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for about 1.0% of NorthStar Asset Management LLC NJ’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. NorthStar Asset Management LLC NJ’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,161,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,204,664,000 after buying an additional 49,735 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 6.9% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 1,514,189 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $651,556,000 after acquiring an additional 97,893 shares during the period. Finally, waypoint wealth counsel boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. waypoint wealth counsel now owns 15,894 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,839,000 after buying an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $470.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.59.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $386.84 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $376.91 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.15, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $409.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $419.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

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.