Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Position Cut by Front Row Advisors LLC

Front Row Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 34,363 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 176 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 4.1% of Front Row Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Front Row Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,003,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the first quarter worth $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 71.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the second quarter worth $104,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the third quarter worth $82,000. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management raised its position in Microsoft by 58.6% during the third quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $260.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $249.41 and its 200 day moving average price 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. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $315.95.

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

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. 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 is presently 30.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSFT. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Guggenheim cut shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. BMO Capital Markets lowered Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Cowen reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.58.

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.