Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,244 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 121 shares during the period. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,632,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Net Worth Advisory Group acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at $2,645,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 263,534 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $113,399,000 after purchasing an additional 18,544 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. increased its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 76,296 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $32,830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Campbell Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Microsoft in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,314,000. Finally, Evernest Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 389.2% in the 3rd quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC now owns 53,770 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,137,000 after buying an additional 42,778 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Trading Down 3.0 %

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $378.80 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $376.91 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $405.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $418.97. The firm has a market cap of $2.82 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.93 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 26.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $525.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, January 24th. DA Davidson raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $425.00 to $450.00 in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $530.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.59.

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.