28,832 Shares in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Acquired by Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC

Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 28,832 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $6,914,000. Microsoft comprises approximately 5.9% of Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DGS Capital Management LLC lifted 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 last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $351,001,000 after buying an additional 196,338 shares during the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the first quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,919,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% in the first quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $795,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% in the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. 69.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.8 %

MSFT opened at $325.92 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 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 one year low of $213.43 and a one year high of $326.90. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $295.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $263.88.

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. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.47%.

Insider Transactions 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 shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value 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 SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 110,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,169,370.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft 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 $196,272,990. 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $348.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Macquarie raised shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $260.00 to $325.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Fundamental Research lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $325.00 to $347.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. One equities research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.69.

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.