Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp Trims Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp lowered its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 88,314 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 2,597 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 3.1% of Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $33,210,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Occidental Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 28,949 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,886,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. LifeSteps Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. LifeSteps Financial Inc. now owns 13,760 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,174,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Geometric Wealth Advisors boosted its position in Microsoft by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Geometric Wealth Advisors now owns 2,216 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $833,000 after buying an additional 178 shares during the period. Fulcrum Equity Management grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Fulcrum Equity Management now owns 908 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $342,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 13.9% in the fourth quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. now owns 41,719 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,154,000 after buying an additional 5,080 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. BNP Paribas upgraded Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, January 18th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $430.52.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $421.90 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $275.37 and a 1 year high of $430.82. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $415.19 and its 200 day moving average is $382.55. The stock has a market cap of $3.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.15, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.32 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.12%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,823,855.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.