Aspen Investment Management Inc Decreases Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Aspen Investment Management Inc lessened its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 17,827 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 65 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 3.5% of Aspen Investment Management Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Aspen Investment Management Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,514,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,515,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $113,399,000 after buying an additional 18,544 shares during the period. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. increased its stake in Microsoft by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 315,594 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $133,023,000 after buying an additional 18,052 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the third quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $32,830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Finally, Campbell Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at about $3,314,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MSFT. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $493.13.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $387.30 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $385.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $411.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $344.79 and a one year high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $2.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.73%.

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.