Bright Financial Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Bright Financial Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 956 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 109 shares during the period. Bright Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $411,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,975,200 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $882,816,000 after acquiring an additional 31,401 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $41,318,000 after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. New Harbor Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 55.9% during the 2nd quarter. New Harbor Financial Group LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $561,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the period. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. now owns 430,730 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $192,515,000 after acquiring an additional 8,290 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Investment Management LLC now owns 156,258 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $69,840,000 after acquiring an additional 5,176 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $423.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $420.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $426.53. The company has a market capitalization of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.94, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $362.90 and a twelve month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

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

Microsoft Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,552,000. The trade was a 4.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. This represents a 8.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 209,431 shares of company stock worth $85,796,688. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research 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.com, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

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.