Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC grew its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 6.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 9,334 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 587 shares during the period. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,174,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of MSFT. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% in the first 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 during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of 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 raised its position in shares of 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 raised its position in shares of 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 raised its position in shares of 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 and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Fundamental Research reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $269.73 to $259.47 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target 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. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft 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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction 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. Insiders have sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $260.79 on Wednesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.98, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $249.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.09. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share 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 net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.48 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

About Microsoft

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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.