Valmark Advisers Inc. Lowers Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by MarketBeat News on May 24th, 2023

Valmark Advisers Inc. cut its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 52,751 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 630 shares during the quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $12,651,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Optas LLC boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 651 shares in the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,652,000 after buying an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 199.7% in the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 107,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,356,000 after buying an additional 71,769 shares in the last quarter. Seascape Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 41.9% in the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,908 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $677,000 after buying an additional 858 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $13,999,000. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $1,550,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 110,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 110,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,169,370.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,081 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.54, for a total transaction 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 $29,481,273.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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A number of research firms recently commented on MSFT. Moffett Nathanson lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $263.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Credit Suisse Group lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Macquarie raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $260.00 to $325.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.28.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.8 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $315.26 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $293.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $263.09. The stock has a market capitalization 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a current ratio of 1.91. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $322.72.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 29.47%.

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.