Dearborn Partners LLC Has $62.67 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Dearborn Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 269,086 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 4,431 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.8% of Dearborn Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $62,670,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Newfound Research LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 25.4% in the second quarter. Newfound Research LLC now owns 296 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $104,000. Darrow Company Inc. bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Finally, Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 150,047 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,152,450.69. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $270.00 price objective for the company. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 17th. Credit Suisse Group set a $365.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, December 9th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $290.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.79.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $242.04 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $241.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $249.53. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $213.43 and a twelve month high of $315.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 34.37% and a return on equity of 42.10%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.51 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.31%.

Microsoft Company Profile

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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.