Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Seaport Global Advisors LLC’s 4th Largest Position

Seaport Global Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,025 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 1.9% of Seaport Global Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Seaport Global Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC lifted 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 valued at $66,852,000 after purchasing an additional 20,553,188 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 11,434.2% during the 2nd 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 purchased a new position in Microsoft during the second quarter valued at $981,125,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in Microsoft by 13.8% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,524,669,000 after buying an additional 3,757,500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada set a $285.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. UBS Group set a $250.00 price target on Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $300.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.58.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $276.20 on Friday. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $213.43 and a twelve month high of $315.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $251.22 and a 200 day moving average of $245.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.69, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.