Tilson Financial Group Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Tilson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 2,161 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $966,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ellenbecker Investment Group lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ellenbecker Investment Group now owns 11,090 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,957,000 after purchasing an additional 446 shares during the last quarter. Dougherty Wealth Advisers LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Dougherty Wealth Advisers LLC now owns 3,290 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,470,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft by 5.7% in the second quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 28,621 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,792,000 after purchasing an additional 1,534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VanderPol Investments L.L.C. grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. VanderPol Investments L.L.C. now owns 1,628 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $728,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $424.83 on Tuesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $366.50 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $428.90 and its 200 day moving average is $428.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The company has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock 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 purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.41, for a total value of $1,118,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 49,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,080,578.32. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. 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. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Loop Capital raised their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, 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 research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.90.

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.