Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Raises Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 348,839 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 22,112 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.2% of Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $150,106,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its position in Microsoft by 169.2% in the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Bellevue Group AG grew its stake in Microsoft by 47.5% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 241.4% during the 2nd 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,700 shares of company stock valued at $16,265,367. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $504.36.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $446.02 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $421.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $427.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $364.13 and a 1 year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released 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. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

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.