General Partner Inc. Cuts Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

General Partner Inc. lowered its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,301 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,450 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 6.8% of General Partner Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. General Partner Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,887,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,160,020,000 after acquiring an additional 842,884 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,511,544 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,426,767,000 after acquiring an additional 97,075 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Microsoft by 6.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,091,789 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,768,771,000 after purchasing an additional 1,563,533 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 14,738,956 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,587,576,000 after purchasing an additional 45,220 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on MSFT. DA Davidson lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $415.00 on Monday. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.24, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $422.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $426.00. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $362.90 and a 12-month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.99 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 24.75%.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,784,292.95. This trade represents a 7.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 786,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. This trade represents a 1.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.