Buckingham Strategic Partners Buys 69,695 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Buckingham Strategic Partners lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 139.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 119,527 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 69,695 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.6% of Buckingham Strategic Partners’ portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Buckingham Strategic Partners’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $27,838,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 71.4% during the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter worth $104,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $82,000. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management increased its position in shares of 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $253.92 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 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. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $315.95. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $248.99 and a 200 day moving average of $245.14.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 2nd. Wolfe Research dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Mizuho raised their target price on Microsoft from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their price target on Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.58.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. 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. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.