Cortland Associates Inc. MO Purchases 29 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Cortland Associates Inc. MO lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,660 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for about 0.3% of Cortland Associates Inc. MO’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Cortland Associates Inc. MO’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,807,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,658,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.8% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Microsoft by 3.4% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 32,471 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,972,000 after buying an additional 1,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ignite Planners LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.3% during the third quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 24,002 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,328,000 after buying an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.59.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $391.26 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $376.91 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.50, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $408.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $419.67.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced 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 period last year, the business posted $2.93 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. Microsoft’s payout ratio 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.