Ninety One UK Ltd Trims Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Ninety One UK Ltd decreased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 20.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,993,198 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,753,266 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 5.4% of Ninety One UK Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Ninety One UK Ltd owned about 0.09% of Microsoft worth $1,677,109,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 35,465.9% during the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,611,140 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $66,852,000 after buying an additional 20,553,188 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 13.8% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 30,893,155 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,524,669,000 after acquiring an additional 3,757,500 shares during the period. Cottage Street Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 17,734.7% during the 4th quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC now owns 3,763,300 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,351,000 after purchasing an additional 3,742,199 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 73.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 8,172,257 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,903,319,000 after purchasing an additional 3,471,095 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, 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 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 89,328 shares in the company, valued at $28,305,363.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $313.85 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $294.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $263.44. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush raised their price target on Microsoft from $325.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Microsoft from $290.00 to $348.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $330.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $310.00 to $340.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $332.00 to $340.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.69.

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.