Sound Income Strategies LLC Has $7.08 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 12.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,830 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,759 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,075,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% during the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the period. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at about $58,000. Bellevue Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 47.5% during the first quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.1 %

MSFT opened at $408.90 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $429.38 and a 200 day moving average of $422.91. The company has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $309.45 and a 12 month high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.97%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Argus upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Macquarie upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $494.72.

About Microsoft

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.