Vawter Financial Ltd. Boosts Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Vawter Financial Ltd. increased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 22.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 959 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 176 shares during the quarter. Vawter Financial Ltd.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $413,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 48,526.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 38,501,645 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $16,567,258,000 after purchasing an additional 38,422,466 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,511,544 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,426,767,000 after buying an additional 97,075 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Microsoft by 6.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,091,789 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,768,771,000 after acquiring an additional 1,563,533 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 18,388,106 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $7,912,402,000 after acquiring an additional 251,408 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 3.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,651,058 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,734,651,000 after acquiring an additional 501,954 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $512.93.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $429.03 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $429.32 and a 200 day moving average of $426.14. The stock has a market cap of $3.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.40, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $385.58 and a 52-week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.99 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.92 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 approximately $23,850,961.92. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.