Salem Capital Management Inc. Has $8.86 Million Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Salem Capital Management Inc. lowered its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 38,061 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 341 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 7.0% of Salem Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Salem Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,864,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. now owns 4,784 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,114,000 after buying an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. Invst LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Invst LLC now owns 16,047 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,679,000 after buying an additional 551 shares during the last quarter. Continental Investors Services Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 6,301.5% in the 3rd quarter. Continental Investors Services Inc. now owns 157,733 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $41,649,000 after buying an additional 155,269 shares during the last quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 92,445 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $21,530,000 after buying an additional 15,401 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,034 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $474,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Up 4.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $276.20 on Friday. The firm 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. The business has a 50-day moving average of $251.22 and a 200-day moving average of $245.45. 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 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) 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 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.48 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $269,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 117,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,614,975.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 completion of the sale, 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 a total of 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective 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. Royal Bank of Canada set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 24th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to 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.