Chase Investment Counsel Corp Grows Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Chase Investment Counsel Corp lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,785 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,229 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 4.6% of Chase Investment Counsel Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Chase Investment Counsel Corp’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $13,759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth approximately $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 47,196.6% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,160,850,000 after buying an additional 4,824,436 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 worth $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 77.6% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,642,931,000 after acquiring an additional 2,744,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at $846,072,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. DA Davidson downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $426.89 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $421.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $425.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.22, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $362.90 and a one year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.99 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.75%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. The trade was a 1.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.