Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s 3rd Largest Position

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61,443 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 896 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 4.4% of Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $23,105,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,179 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,828,000 after buying an additional 1,112 shares during the last quarter. Bridgecreek Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Bridgecreek Investment Management LLC now owns 17,166 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,455,000 after buying an additional 1,350 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Microsoft by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 5,598,826 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,105,382,000 after buying an additional 569,184 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,320,000. Finally, APG Asset Management US Inc. purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $132,884,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT traded up $7.28 on Friday, hitting $406.32. The company had a trading volume of 29,640,094 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,152,042. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $295.25 and a 52-week high of $430.82. The business has a 50 day moving average of $414.48 and a 200 day moving average of $388.51. The company has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $452.61.

About Microsoft

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.