Ropes Wealth Advisors LLC Has $27.17 Million Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Ropes Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 113,299 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,252 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 4.9% of Ropes Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Ropes Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $27,171,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 35,465.9% in the first quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $66,852,000 after purchasing an additional 20,553,188 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 13.8% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,524,669,000 after buying an additional 3,757,500 shares during the period. Cottage Street Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 17,734.7% during the fourth quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC now owns 3,763,300 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,351,000 after buying an additional 3,742,199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 73.8% during the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 8,172,257 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,903,319,000 after acquiring an additional 3,471,095 shares during the period. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $318.34 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.49, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $319.04. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $290.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $261.67. 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.25% and a return on equity of 38.98%. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.22 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 29.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $310.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday, April 24th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Microsoft from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. DA Davidson upped their target price on Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.28.

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.