NuWave Investment Management LLC Takes Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

NuWave Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 815 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $190,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 621,598,157 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $191,644,927,000 after purchasing an additional 5,648,095 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after purchasing an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 54,799,110 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,074,064,000 after purchasing an additional 784,656 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 40,130,443 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,306,701,000 after purchasing an additional 939,396 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 39,863,273 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,290,246,000 after purchasing an additional 766,487 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.27, for a total transaction of $6,139,094.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 150,047 shares in the company, valued at $38,152,450.69. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 10th. Macquarie initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, November 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $234.00 price target on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $265.00 to $247.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 9th. DA Davidson initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, January 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $270.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $330.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $293.09.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.3 %

MSFT opened at $239.23 on Tuesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $315.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $241.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $250.60.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 25th. The software giant reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $50.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.70 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 34.37% and a return on equity of 42.10%. The business’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.27 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.31%.

About Microsoft

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Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.