Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Lifted by FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 72,967 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,931 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 4.9% of FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $17,499,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its stake in 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 Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth about $54,000. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Atlantic Securities boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $322.00 in a research note on Monday, April 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $310.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.28.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $321.18 on Tuesday. 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 fifty day moving average price of $292.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $262.43. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $322.59. The company has a market cap of $2.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.93.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $28,305,363.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.87, for a total transaction of $1,584,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 89,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,305,363.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,081 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.54, for a total value of $1,588,015.74. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 94,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,481,273.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft 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.