Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Increases Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 27,528 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the period. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,603,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 76.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,532,402 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,439,407,000 after purchasing an additional 4,568,539 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $70,790,682,000 after purchasing an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 46.1% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,032,859,000 after buying an additional 2,222,483 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 4.1% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 43,900.4% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 2,042,499 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $860,913,000 after buying an additional 2,037,857 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $530.00 to $472.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $520.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, January 27th. Wedbush cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $499.97.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $367.78 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $388.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $412.73. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $2.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.61, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.93 EPS. Analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.