New England Professional Planning Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

New England Professional Planning Group Inc. lowered its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 14.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 635 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 103 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $273,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MSFT. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 169.2% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter worth $75,000. Bellevue Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 47.5% during the first quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 241.4% during the second quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $169,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. DA Davidson lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at $219,349,953.73. This trade represents a 6.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 209,431 shares of company stock valued at $85,796,688 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Stock Performance

MSFT opened at $422.99 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.90, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $362.90 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $421.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $426.42. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.99 earnings per share. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

Microsoft announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board 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.