Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC Has $16.51 Million Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 70,893 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,193 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 1.0% of Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $16,511,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $66,852,000 after purchasing an additional 20,553,188 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% during the first 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. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 11,434.2% during the second quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. now owns 5,460,976 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $21,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,413,630 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at about $981,125,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 13.8% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,524,669,000 after purchasing an additional 3,757,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $242.58 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.14, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.94. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $241.72 and its 200 day moving average is $249.71. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 25th. The software giant reported $2.35 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $50.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.70 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 42.10% and a net margin of 34.37%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.51 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 15th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 29.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. UBS Group set a $250.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $305.00 to $275.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $315.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.79.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.27, for a total value of $6,139,094.88. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 150,047 shares in the company, valued at $38,152,450.69. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.