Ycg LLC Raises Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Ycg LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 250,102 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,297 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 6.4% of Ycg LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Ycg LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $59,922,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% during the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $314.00 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $288.14 and its 200-day moving average is $260.15. The company has a market cap of $2.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.02, a PEG ratio of 2.74 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. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $213.43 and a 52-week high of $314.43.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The firm had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.22 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 earnings per share 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 0.87%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 110,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $1,550,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,169,370.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 49,848 shares of company stock valued at $15,050,877 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on MSFT shares. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Raymond James increased their target price on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wedbush upped their price target on Microsoft from $325.00 to $340.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Microsoft from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Cowen dropped their target price on Microsoft from $285.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.28.

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.