Banque de Luxembourg S.A. Invests $18.67 Million in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Banque de Luxembourg S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 44,111 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $18,667,000. Microsoft accounts for 9.9% of Banque de Luxembourg S.A.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter valued at $44,343,058,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 34,643.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,837,278 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $7,096,913,000 after acquiring an additional 16,788,816 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after acquiring an additional 11,600,470 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 684,071,705 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $288,336,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,431,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. increased its stake in Microsoft by 471.4% during the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 5,812,933 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,366,153,000 after purchasing an additional 4,795,536 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total value of $1,389,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,339,590. The trade was a 6.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.77, for a total transaction of $9,756,055.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 134,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $61,208,127.76. This trade represents a 13.75% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 135,743 shares of company stock valued at $60,224,683 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Microsoft from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $515.68.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.8%

MSFT opened at $474.96 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.03. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $344.79 and a 52 week high of $480.42. The business’s 50 day moving average is $428.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $418.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The software giant reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $0.24. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.43% and a return on equity of 33.36%. The firm had revenue of $70.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.94 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.66%.

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.