Ashford Capital Management Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Ashford Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,941 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 88 shares during the period. Ashford Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,781,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 19.9% during the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after purchasing an additional 2,383 shares in the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% during the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $351,001,000 after buying an additional 196,338 shares during the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% during the first quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% during the first quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% during the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group set a $250.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Guggenheim cut Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 17th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. One equities 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.58.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $260.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.98, 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 fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $315.95. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $249.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $245.09.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.22%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. Corporate 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.