Townsend & Associates Inc Increases Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Townsend & Associates Inc lifted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 167.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,907 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,446 shares during the quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $894,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 71.4% during the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Avondale Wealth Management raised its stake in Microsoft by 58.6% during the 3rd quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $104,000. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on MSFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 price objective on Microsoft and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Royal Bank of Canada set a $285.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.58.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $254.15 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $213.43 and a twelve month high of $315.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $247.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $245.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The business had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.48 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Company Profile

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.