Aviance Capital Partners LLC Lowers Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC decreased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 27,581 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 99 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises approximately 1.5% of Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,614,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,383 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its position 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 worth $3,919,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% during the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.8 %

MSFT stock opened at $315.26 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.16, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.93. 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 Co. has a 12-month low of $213.43 and a 12-month high of $322.72. The business’s 50-day moving average is $293.30 and its 200 day moving average is $263.09.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.01 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.22 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $340.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Atlantic Securities increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Moffett Nathanson boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $263.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.28.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The shares were 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 directly owns 89,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 in the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company 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.