Balanced Wealth Group LLC Sells 256 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Balanced Wealth Group LLC cut its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,134 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 256 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 0.2% of Balanced Wealth Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Balanced Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gradient Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.8% in the first quarter. Gradient Capital Advisors LLC now owns 15,272 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,425,000 after acquiring an additional 413 shares in the last quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 5.5% in the first quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 49,742 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,928,000 after acquiring an additional 2,579 shares in the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 20.7% in the first quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 5,904 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,484,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares during the last quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.5% in the first quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,997 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,468,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deltec Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% in the first quarter. Deltec Asset Management LLC now owns 71,127 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $29,925,000 after purchasing an additional 3,980 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Citigroup decreased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. 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 report on Wednesday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $425.43 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $420.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $424.80. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $360.36 and a one year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.95 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at $328,473,703.53. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.