Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Acquired by Sanders Morris Harris LLC

Sanders Morris Harris LLC lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,643 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.0% of Sanders Morris Harris LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Sanders Morris Harris LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its holdings 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. grew 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 during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in Microsoft by 77.6% during 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 Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth approximately $846,072,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $418.79 on Tuesday. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $362.90 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The company has a market capitalization of $3.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $421.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $426.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.39%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total transaction of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 209,431 shares of company stock worth $85,796,688. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of 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 shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

About Microsoft

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.