Hancock Whitney Corp Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Hancock Whitney Corp reduced its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 355,047 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 6,518 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 3.3% of Hancock Whitney Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $85,147,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rovin Capital UT ADV boosted its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 3,747 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $873,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Lokken Investment Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Lokken Investment Group LLC now owns 11,976 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,076,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Denver Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Denver Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,348 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $323,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Daniels&Tansey LLP increased its stake in Microsoft by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Daniels&Tansey LLP now owns 1,488 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,536 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,632,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MSFT. Credit Suisse Group raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Microsoft from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Macquarie raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $260.00 to $325.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.28.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $311.74 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $286.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $259.77. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $313.71. The company has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.77, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.22 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft 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 directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 directly owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,952,107.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 44,767 shares of company stock valued at $13,462,861 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.