Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Has $1.31 Billion Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,617,077 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 154,714 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 3.8% of Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,308,217,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,422,000 after acquiring an additional 2,383 shares in the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its position in Microsoft by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $351,001,000 after purchasing an additional 196,338 shares during the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,919,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $795,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $253.92 on Tuesday. 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 Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $315.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $248.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.48 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 is available at this link. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of 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 research report on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. UBS Group set a $250.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. One equities research 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.58.

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.