MontVue Capital Management Inc. Acquires 794 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

MontVue Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 59.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,131 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 794 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 0.8% of MontVue Capital Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. MontVue Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $952,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at $35,920,047,000. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after buying an additional 842,884 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 25,381,692 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,544,532,000 after buying an additional 403,409 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% during the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 13,640,068 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,096,428,000 after buying an additional 360,171 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on MSFT. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $485.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America upped their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Argus boosted their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $493.94.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.7 %

MSFT opened at $432.11 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $420.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $424.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $309.45 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.41, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly 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 return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.97%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,784,292.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total transaction of $15,600,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,784,292.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.