Sabal Trust CO Sells 9,274 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Sabal Trust CO lowered its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 179,955 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 9,274 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 4.2% of Sabal Trust CO’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Sabal Trust CO’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $67,670,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after buying an additional 5,762,902 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,152,647,000 after buying an additional 2,456,190 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $9,625,201,000. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,749,275,000 after purchasing an additional 1,796,956 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 10,671,615 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,369,562,000 after purchasing an additional 88,583 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Down 3.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $389.33 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.24. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $303.40 and a 52-week high of $430.82. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $414.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $389.44. The stock has a market cap of $2.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.45 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.71 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.97%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $452.61.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 3,303 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.12, for a total transaction of $1,341,414.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 570,826 shares in the company, valued at $231,823,855.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.