Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Holdings Reduced by Bray Capital Advisors

Bray Capital Advisors lessened its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 17.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,946 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 5,290 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 2.8% of Bray Capital Advisors’ holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Bray Capital Advisors’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,515,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,790,682,000 after buying an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its position in Microsoft by 46.1% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,048,244 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,032,859,000 after buying an additional 2,222,483 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $23,490,417,000 after acquiring an additional 2,125,030 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,037,857 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on MSFT shares. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $595.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Wedbush lowered their price target on Microsoft from $550.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $520.00 to $435.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $493.13.

Microsoft Trading Up 3.4 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $387.30 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. 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 $2.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $385.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $411.53.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share 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 business earned $2.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

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

Microsoft 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.