Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Gould Asset Management LLC CA

Gould Asset Management LLC CA trimmed its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,879 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 141 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 0.7% of Gould Asset Management LLC CA’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Gould Asset Management LLC CA’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,068,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in 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 acquiring an additional 556,020 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in 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 acquiring an additional 784,656 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in 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 acquiring an additional 208,765 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Guggenheim cut Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. Raymond James decreased their price target on Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada set a $285.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Fundamental Research reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $269.73 to $259.47 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 2nd. Finally, Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, March 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $260.79 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $315.95. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $249.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $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 P/E ratio of 28.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft had a return on equity of 39.87% and a net margin of 33.05%. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.17 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.48 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.22%.

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.