Avondale Wealth Management Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Avondale Wealth Management reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 36.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 256 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 150 shares during the period. Avondale Wealth Management’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $61,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% during the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $82,000. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 57.5% during the 3rd quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 411 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $104,000. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

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 value of $272,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, 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 in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MSFT. Raymond James decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. UBS Group set a $250.00 price objective on Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, March 14th. BMO Capital Markets cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. One 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $286.05.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.2 %

Microsoft stock opened at $279.43 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $252.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.43. 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.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

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.