Insider Selling: Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Sells $10,425,000.00 in Stock

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. This trade represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $422.99 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $362.90 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.90, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $421.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.42.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its 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. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, September 16th that permits the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software giant to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 1.1% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 38,420,657 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $16,104,959,000 after purchasing an additional 406,940 shares in the last quarter. Decatur Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Microsoft by 15.7% in the third quarter. Decatur Capital Management Inc. now owns 53,007 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $22,809,000 after acquiring an additional 7,208 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp boosted its stake in Microsoft by 8.3% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 445,759 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $191,812,000 after acquiring an additional 34,261 shares during the period. Castellan Group boosted its stake in Microsoft by 5.2% in the third quarter. Castellan Group now owns 21,154 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,103,000 after acquiring an additional 1,052 shares during the period. Finally, Optimist Retirement Group LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 187.7% in the third quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 16,219 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,979,000 after acquiring an additional 10,581 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

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.