Heck Capital Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 13,347 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $5,626,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 35.7% during the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 95 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. IFS Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 53.8% in the fourth quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Avondale Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 144.4% in the fourth quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 110 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the third quarter worth $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.59.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $395.16 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $2.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $407.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $419.53. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $376.91 and a one year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the firm earned $2.93 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current 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 given 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 0.84%. 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.