Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT), which are sold by ODonnell Financial Services LLC

userJanuary 28, 2023

ODonnell Financial Services LLC reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ: MSFT – Get a rating) by 3.4% in the third quarter, the company said in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,782 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 99 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.3% of ODonnell Financial Services LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. ODonnell Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $648,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lesa Sroufe & Co purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the third quarter valued at $6,196,000. Strs Ohio raised its position in Microsoft by 1.8% in the third quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 4,335,181 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,009,663,000 after purchasing an additional 75,862 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 2,789,479 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $649,670,000 after purchasing an additional 37,545 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.5% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,829,179 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,590,515,000 after acquiring an additional 168,723 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Barn Wealth LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 5.5% in the third quarter. Blue Barn Wealth LLC now owns 4,664 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,086,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.15% of the company’s shares.

A Wall Street analyst weighs in

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Microsoft from $290.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 26th. Credit Suisse Group reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $365.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Macquarie assumed coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, November 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $234.00 target price for the company. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a “buy” rating to the company’s stock. Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $283.09, based on data from MarketBeat.

Insider trading at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Judson Althoff sold 24,144 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.27 for a total value of $6,139,094.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 150,047 shares in the company, valued at $38,152,450.69. The deal was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is available via SEC website. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft stock performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $248.16 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $315.95. The stock has a market cap of $1.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.57, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a fifty day moving average of $241.83 and a 200 day moving average of $249.46. The company has a gearing ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.93, and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT – Get a rating) last published its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft’s return on equity was 39.87%, and its net margin was 33.05%. The company had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. For the same period last year, earnings per share amounted to $2.48. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. In general, analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.43 EPS in the current fiscal year.

Microsoft announces dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 16th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 15th. That’s a $2.72 annual dividend and a yield of 1.10%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Microsoft profile

(Get a rating)

Microsoft Corp. develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Process, Intelligent Cloud, and Other Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, Office 365 part of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions and Office with an on-premise license), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, on-premises licenses for Office and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, premium subscriptions, Sales Solutions and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, which includes a set of intelligent cloud applications for ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, as well as on-premise ERP and CRM applications.