Coastwise Capital Group LLC Has $3.52 Million Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Coastwise Capital Group LLC raised its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 8.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,353 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 658 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 2.8% of Coastwise Capital Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Coastwise Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,521,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 4.1% in the third 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 buying an additional 2,125,030 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 47,229,125 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,322,513,000 after acquiring an additional 652,493 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after purchasing an additional 38,422,466 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 38,420,657 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,104,959,000 after purchasing an additional 406,940 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Loop Capital raised their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $509.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $520.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. Three investment 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 stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.59.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $393.08 on Tuesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $376.91 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The company has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.65, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $408.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $419.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.93 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s 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.