Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. Has $3.99 Million Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,917 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the quarter. Willis Johnson & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,985,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,767 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,545,000 after purchasing an additional 956 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 1,307,487 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $550,086,000 after buying an additional 5,253 shares during the last quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 296.7% during the 1st quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,027 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,274,000 after buying an additional 2,264 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank boosted its position in Microsoft by 19.0% during the 2nd quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 81,502 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,427,000 after buying an additional 12,994 shares during the period. Finally, Spinnaker Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 12,521 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,268,000 after acquiring an additional 326 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. TD Cowen upped their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $493.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,552,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock valued at $77,916,485. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.1 %

MSFT stock opened at $418.74 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $324.39 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $418.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $424.65. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.38 billion. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.02 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.74%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.