Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Acquired by Continental Investors Services Inc.

Continental Investors Services Inc. grew its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 6,301.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 157,733 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 155,269 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.5% of Continental Investors Services Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Continental Investors Services Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $41,649,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the third quarter worth about $82,000. Avondale Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 57.5% during the third quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 411 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s 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 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. Insiders have sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 in the last ninety days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.58.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $276.20 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $315.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company’s 50 day moving average is $251.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.45.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

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.