Shepherd Financial Partners LLC Purchases 853 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Shepherd Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 37,127 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 853 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 1.9% of Shepherd Financial Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $15,649,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 48,526.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after purchasing an additional 38,422,466 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Microsoft by 76.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,439,407,000 after buying an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,790,682,000 after purchasing an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 46.1% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,032,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $23,490,417,000 after purchasing an additional 2,125,030 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $425.00 to $450.00 in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Microsoft from $550.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $508.86.

Microsoft Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $359.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $399.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $417.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.68 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $359.48 and a 1-year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.92%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

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.