National Pension Service Purchases 217,932 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

National Pension Service increased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 2.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,643,704 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 217,932 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 4.8% of National Pension Service’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.13% of Microsoft worth $2,290,380,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at $82,000. Avondale Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 58.6% in the 3rd quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 406 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 57.5% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 can be accessed 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 can be accessed 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 stock was 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 in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8 %

MSFT stock opened at $265.44 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $315.95. The company has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $250.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.02%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, February 27th. Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.58.

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.