Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Shares Sold by Colorado Capital Management Inc.

Colorado Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,310 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 137 shares during the quarter. Colorado Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,424,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Microsoft in the first quarter valued at $5,587,119,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 47,196.6% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,834,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,160,850,000 after buying an additional 4,824,436 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in Microsoft by 77.6% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,281,925 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,642,931,000 after buying an additional 2,744,900 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the first quarter valued at about $846,072,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.03.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,784,292.95. The trade was a 7.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total value of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 209,431 shares of company stock valued at $85,796,688 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $427.99 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $421.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.44. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $362.90 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.18 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.