Trinity Financial Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Trinity Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 4,019 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises 0.7% of Trinity Financial Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,729,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 169.2% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth $75,000. Bellevue Group AG grew its holdings in Microsoft by 47.5% during the first quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 241.4% in the second quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $169,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. DA Davidson cut shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. This represents a 8.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,784,292.95. The trade was a 7.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $415.76 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $362.90 and a 12-month high of $468.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $422.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $426.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.83 per share. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.75%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.