Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd. Has $3.73 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd. trimmed its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 18.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,563 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,470 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.8% of Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,732,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after purchasing an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 11,434.2% during the second quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. now owns 5,460,976 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $21,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,413,630 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth approximately $981,125,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings 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 worth $9,524,669,000 after purchasing an additional 3,757,500 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $279.43 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $252.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.43. The company has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.05, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. 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 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The business had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.48 earnings per share. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid 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 0.97%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 24th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report 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 issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.05.

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.