Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co Increases Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by MarketBeat News on Mar 15th, 2023

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 139,127 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,910 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 0.7% of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $32,403,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% in the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft in the third quarter valued at $82,000. Avondale Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 58.6% in the third quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 57.5% in the third quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 411 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.7 %

MSFT stock opened at $260.79 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $315.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The company has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.98, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $249.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $245.09.

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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $52.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The firm’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 company posted $2.48 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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 given 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 dividend yield of 1.04%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was 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 owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Wolfe Research dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.58.

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.