Bogart Wealth LLC Boosts Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Bogart Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 17.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 55,592 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 8,100 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 0.9% of Bogart Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Bogart Wealth LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $13,332,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. DGS Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 19.9% in the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,422,000 after acquiring an additional 2,383 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% in 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 stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 359 shares during the period. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 8.2% in the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $318.34 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.93. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $290.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $261.67. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $319.04.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued 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. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.22 earnings per share. The company’s 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 29.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Microsoft from $290.00 to $348.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Fundamental Research downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Macquarie raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $260.00 to $325.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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 stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related 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 value of $9,182,700.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,952,107.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.87, for a total value of $1,584,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 89,328 shares in the company, valued at $28,305,363.36. 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. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.