Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. Buys Shares of 734 Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 734 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $328,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,920,047,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,908,939 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $250,032,357,000 after buying an additional 15,701,937 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter valued at $5,587,119,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $4,000,376,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 277.8% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 7,004,341 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,633,912,000 after acquiring an additional 5,150,160 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. New Street Research began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $570.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $494.72.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 14,964 shares of company stock worth $6,245,404. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $410.60 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $433.71 and its 200 day moving average is $422.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $309.45 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The firm had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.97%.

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.