WealthTrust Asset Management LLC Has $1.68 Million Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

WealthTrust Asset Management LLC decreased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 10.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,994 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 804 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.6% of WealthTrust Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. WealthTrust Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,677,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 valued at $147,714,197,000 after purchasing an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951,554 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $50,302,677,000 after purchasing an additional 556,020 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 49,440,386 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $11,514,665,000 after purchasing an additional 208,765 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 40,345,546 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,396,477,000 after purchasing an additional 215,103 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Credit Suisse Group increased their price target on Microsoft from $285.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wolfe Research upped their price target on Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. 888 reissued a “maintains” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” 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 issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 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 sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 89,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,305,363.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 54,848 shares of company stock worth $16,635,227 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $315.26 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.16, a P/E/G 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 $322.72. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $293.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $263.09.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.22 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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