Bosun Asset Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Bosun Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,835 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Bosun Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,616,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 34,643.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,096,913,000 after buying an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after buying an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 471.4% during the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 5,812,933 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,366,153,000 after buying an additional 4,795,536 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total value of $1,389,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,339,590. This trade represents a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $433.17, for a total transaction of $2,599,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 471,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,038,664.12. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 11th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $515.68.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $479.14 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $480.69. The company has a 50 day moving average of $430.54 and a 200-day moving average of $418.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.54 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.94 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research 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, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.66%.

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.