AR Asset Management Inc. Sells 4,685 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by MarketBeat News on May 9th, 2023

AR Asset Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 19.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,219 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 4,685 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 1.3% of AR Asset Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. AR Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,609,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Optas LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 25,001 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,996,000 after buying an additional 651 shares during the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,652,000 after buying an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 199.7% in the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,356,000 after buying an additional 71,769 shares during the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 41.9% during the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $677,000 after purchasing an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $13,999,000. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at $34,169,370.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 41,767 shares of company stock valued at $12,461,061. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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Several research firms have recently commented on MSFT. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $295.00 to $337.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $310.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Monday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Atlantic Securities upped their price objective on Microsoft from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $322.88.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $308.65 on Tuesday. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $311.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market cap of $2.29 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a 50-day moving average of $280.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $256.77.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.22 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.47%.

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.