Equita Financial Network Inc. Purchases 107 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Equita Financial Network Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,265 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Equita Financial Network Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $955,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.8% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 2,799,261 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,204,664,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Microsoft by 3.4% in the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 32,471 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $13,972,000 after purchasing an additional 1,068 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ignite Planners LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.3% in the third quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 24,002 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,328,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $391.26 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.50, a P/E/G 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $408.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $419.67. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $376.91 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35.

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, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. Loop Capital raised their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. DA Davidson raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.59.

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.