Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. Has $279,000 Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by MarketBeat News on Mar 19th, 2023

Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. lowered its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 14.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,165 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Waller Financial Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $279,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd grew its holdings in Microsoft by 199.7% during the third quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,356,000 after purchasing an additional 71,769 shares during the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 41.9% in the third quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $677,000 after acquiring an additional 858 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 6.4% in the second quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 67,872 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $17,432,000 after acquiring an additional 4,081 shares during the period. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.2% in the third quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,751 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,943,000 after acquiring an additional 650 shares during the period. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 2,789,479 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $649,670,000 after acquiring an additional 37,545 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $279.43 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $213.43 and a twelve month high of $315.95. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 1.93. The business has a fifty day moving average of $252.31 and a 200-day moving average of $245.43.

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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. The firm 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%. The company’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.48 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $0.68 dividend. 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 payout ratio is 30.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total value of $272,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Guggenheim cut Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. Wolfe Research reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $310.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.