Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Cercano Management LLC

Cercano Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,097,216 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 48,138 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 11.8% of Cercano Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Cercano Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $462,477,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFS Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 53.8% in the fourth quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Avondale Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 144.4% in the fourth quarter. Avondale Wealth Management now owns 110 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $62,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MSFT. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen cut Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $525.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $515.68.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.01, for a total transaction of $460,010.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 47,058 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,647,150.58. The trade was a 2.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $436.05, for a total value of $32,703,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 476,999 shares in the company, valued at $207,995,413.95. The trade was a 13.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.9%

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $479.14 on Tuesday. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $480.69. The company has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s fifty day moving average is $430.54 and its 200 day moving average is $418.94.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The company had revenue of $70.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.94 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.66%.

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.