Soltis Investment Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Soltis Investment Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 115,054 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,417 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 4.9% of Soltis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its biggest position. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $43,265,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in Microsoft by 9.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,152,647,000 after acquiring an additional 2,456,190 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $9,625,201,000. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,749,275,000 after acquiring an additional 1,796,956 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 10,671,615 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,369,562,000 after purchasing an additional 88,583 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $406.66 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $303.40 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $413.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $390.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.45 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on MSFT. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $452.61.

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.