ACT Advisors LLC. Buys 310 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

ACT Advisors LLC. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 10.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,284 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 0.8% of ACT Advisors LLC.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. ACT Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,468,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $58,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Bellevue Group AG boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 47.5% in the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth approximately $80,000. Finally, Cooksen Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $86,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.8 %

MSFT opened at $428.02 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.18 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $309.45 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $419.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $424.76.

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

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total transaction of $6,009,869.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $328,473,703.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $485.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Argus upped their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Two 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.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $493.94.

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.