Financial Management Network Inc. Purchases 2,481 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Financial Management Network Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 17.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,956 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,481 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 1.8% of Financial Management Network Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Financial Management Network Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,236,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,359,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 82,267 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,976,000 after purchasing an additional 3,209 shares in the last quarter. Bailard Inc. increased its position in Microsoft by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $148,497,000 after purchasing an additional 5,366 shares in the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $25,967,000 after purchasing an additional 6,484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky increased its position in Microsoft by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 17,471 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,516,000 after purchasing an additional 1,245 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 price target for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $432.13.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.3 %

Microsoft stock opened at $399.12 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $275.37 and a 1-year high of $430.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $414.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $385.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.32 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

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.