Costello Asset Management INC Has $5.60 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Costello Asset Management INC lessened its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 23,366 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 5.0% of Costello Asset Management INC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Costello Asset Management INC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,604,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% in the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after buying an additional 2,383 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $351,001,000 after purchasing an additional 196,338 shares during the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.2% during the first quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 16.2% during the first quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after acquiring an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $308.97 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $313.00. The company has a market capitalization of $2.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a current ratio of 1.91. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $284.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $258.41.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.22 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $325.00 to $347.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $340.00 in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $340.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Atlantic Securities lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total value of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total transaction of $9,182,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 directly owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 45,767 shares of company stock worth $13,735,181. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

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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.