Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Lifted by First Command Advisory Services Inc.

First Command Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 24,196 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. First Command Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,199,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 165,024,812 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,790,682,000 after buying an additional 3,264,648 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 4.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 54,590,791 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $23,490,417,000 after acquiring an additional 2,125,030 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 47,229,125 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $20,322,513,000 after acquiring an additional 652,493 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted 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 valued at $16,104,959,000 after acquiring an additional 406,940 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.3% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 27,904,450 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $12,007,285,000 after purchasing an additional 636,713 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $507.77.

Microsoft Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $435.28 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.00. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $468.35. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $384.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $411.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.54 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. The company’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.94 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.73%.

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.