Wolf Group Capital Advisors Increases Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Wolf Group Capital Advisors raised its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 16.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,501 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,213 shares during the quarter. Wolf Group Capital Advisors’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,039,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. now owns 3,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $898,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the third quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 3,747 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $873,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Lokken Investment Group LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Lokken Investment Group LLC now owns 11,976 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,076,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Denver Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Denver Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,348 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $323,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daniels&Tansey LLP grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Daniels&Tansey LLP now owns 1,488 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $357,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $315.26 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $293.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $263.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.88. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $213.43 and a 12 month high of $322.72.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. The firm 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%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.22 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 29.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Microsoft from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Microsoft from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wolfe Research lifted their price target on Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.28.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total transaction of $1,550,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 110,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 54,848 shares of company stock worth $16,635,227. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.