Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. Increases Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 11.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,475 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 155 shares during the quarter. Waller Financial Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $635,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. M&R Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.6% during the third quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. now owns 29,661 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $12,763,000 after acquiring an additional 742 shares during the period. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 24.3% during the 3rd quarter. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. now owns 12,524 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $5,389,000 after purchasing an additional 2,448 shares in the last quarter. Doliver Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 21.5% during the 3rd quarter. Doliver Advisors LP now owns 5,150 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,216,000 after purchasing an additional 911 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.9% in the third quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 96,021 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $41,318,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares during the period. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% during the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 2,997 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,290,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. 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 report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $415.00 on Monday. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $362.90 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $422.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $426.00.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its 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. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during 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 was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback 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 purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management 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 paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.75%.

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.