Burt Wealth Advisors Grows Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Burt Wealth Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,516 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 1.2% of Burt Wealth Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Burt Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,854,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,622,581 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $683,918,000 after purchasing an additional 140,712 shares during the last quarter. GR Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Microsoft by 87.2% during the fourth quarter. GR Financial Group LLC now owns 1,509 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $636,000 after purchasing an additional 703 shares in the last quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC now owns 175,816 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $74,107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,959 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 49,052,704 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $20,675,715,000 after purchasing an additional 1,823,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, James Reed Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth $1,337,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, TD Securities upped their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $507.77.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $438.73 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 moving average price is $389.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $411.74. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.26 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.32, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The company’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.94 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.66%.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,995,413.95. This represents a 13.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.