Stolper Co Has $7.01 Million Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Stolper Co trimmed its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 16,300 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 44 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises 2.3% of Stolper Co’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Stolper Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,014,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 169.2% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $75,000. Bellevue Group AG lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 47.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 241.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $169,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $422.99 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $362.90 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock’s fifty 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $353,189,942.01. The trade was a 8.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total value of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at $219,349,953.73. This represents a 6.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 209,431 shares of company stock valued at $85,796,688. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.