Tilson Financial Group Inc. Makes New $598,000 Investment in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Tilson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 2,492 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $598,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Optas LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 25,001 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,996,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares during the period. West Branch Capital LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,652,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the period. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 199.7% during the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,356,000 after purchasing an additional 71,769 shares in the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 41.9% during the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $677,000 after purchasing an additional 858 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $13,999,000. 69.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total value of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the business’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 completion of 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Microsoft from $310.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Raymond James lifted their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.28.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT stock opened at $318.34 on Monday. The stock has a 50-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. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.93.

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 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.22 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

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.