Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Bought by Thornburg Investment Management Inc.

Thornburg Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,293 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 808 shares during the quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,015,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after purchasing an additional 6,129,708 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951,554 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after buying an additional 556,020 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 54,799,110 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,074,064,000 after buying an additional 784,656 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 49,440,386 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,514,665,000 after buying an additional 208,765 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $260.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $249.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $245.09. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year 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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The business 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%. The company’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.48 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’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 transaction of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. 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 research report on Wednesday, January 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $305.00 target price on shares of Microsoft and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 24th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock 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.