Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stake Cut by Anomaly Capital Management LP

Anomaly Capital Management LP lowered its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 8.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 504,301 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 48,533 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 6.3% of Anomaly Capital Management LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Anomaly Capital Management LP’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $117,452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Phoenix Wealth Advisors raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 17,286 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,440,000 after buying an additional 343 shares during the period. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 199.7% in the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,356,000 after buying an additional 71,769 shares during the period. Seascape Capital Management raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 41.9% in the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $677,000 after buying an additional 858 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 67,872 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $17,432,000 after buying an additional 4,081 shares during the period. Finally, BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,751 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,943,000 after buying an additional 650 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on Microsoft from $285.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 26th. StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. DA Davidson increased their price target on Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.58.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $248.59 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $315.95. The stock has a market cap of $1.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.62, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 1.93. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $248.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $245.53.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The business had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.48 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total transaction of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft 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.