Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. Lowers Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,600 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $624,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 71.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $54,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on MSFT. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Microsoft from $307.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $325.00 to $340.00 in a report on Thursday, May 11th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $290.00 to $348.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Microsoft from $310.00 to $340.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.69.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $325.92 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $213.43 and a 52 week high of $326.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’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 quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.22 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.47%.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Microsoft news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total value of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at $35,952,107.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 54,848 shares of company stock valued at $16,635,227. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Company Profile

(Get Rating)

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.