Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Sells $10,642,000.00 in Stock

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 104,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,674,690.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $430.16 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $309.45 and a one year high of $433.60. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $416.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $398.93.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.45 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.77 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $45,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1,290.0% during the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $58,000. Bellevue Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 47.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Macquarie increased their target price on Microsoft from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, March 15th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $454.70.

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.