Olstein Capital Management L.P. Increases Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Olstein Capital Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 10.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,000 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 3,000 shares during the period. Olstein Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,914,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,422,000 after purchasing an additional 2,383 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its position in Microsoft by 20.8% during the 1st 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 period. Altus Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,919,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the period. Powell Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $795,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the period. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $340.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $340.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 11th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $310.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Monday, April 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.28.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at $35,952,107.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 5th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $34,169,370.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 54,848 shares of company stock worth $16,635,227 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1 %

Microsoft stock opened at $318.34 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $290.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $261.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $319.04.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business 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%. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.47%.

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.