Eagle Bay Advisors LLC Reduces Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Eagle Bay Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 12,757 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,066 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.8% of Eagle Bay Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,976,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $66,852,000 after purchasing an additional 20,553,188 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. boosted its position in Microsoft by 11,434.2% in the second quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. now owns 5,460,976 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $21,263,000 after buying an additional 5,413,630 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $981,125,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 13.8% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,524,669,000 after acquiring an additional 3,757,500 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’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 directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 in the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on MSFT. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 target price on Microsoft in a report on Monday, February 27th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.58.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $276.20 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $251.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $245.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 1.93. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $315.95. The company has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.48 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 30.22%.

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.