PFW Advisors LLC Grows Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

PFW Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,815 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 503 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for 1.3% of PFW Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. PFW Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $4,067,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 19.9% in the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after purchasing an additional 2,383 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 20.8% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $351,001,000 after purchasing an additional 196,338 shares during the period. Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the first quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the period. Powell Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 16.2% in the first quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the period. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.2% in the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total transaction of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total value of $1,341,414.36. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $231,823,855.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock valued at $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Macquarie boosted their price target on Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $432.13.

Microsoft Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $404.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market cap of $3.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $275.37 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $415.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $384.29.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.32 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.12%.

Microsoft 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.