Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd Increases Holdings in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd raised its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 833.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,745 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,380 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 4.4% of Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,339,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Forsta AP Fonden increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 1,864,200 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $927,272,000 after buying an additional 14,000 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its position in Microsoft by 20.2% in the second quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 5,214,539 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,593,764,000 after acquiring an additional 874,638 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. increased its stake in Microsoft by 3.7% in the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 763,276 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $379,661,000 after acquiring an additional 27,231 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Quarterback LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 1.2% during the second quarter. Wealth Quarterback LLC now owns 9,517 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,734,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Turn8 Private Wealth Inc. raised its position in Microsoft by 3.8% during the second quarter. Turn8 Private Wealth Inc. now owns 11,423 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,770,000 after purchasing an additional 423 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on MSFT shares. Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Daiwa Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $500.00 target price (down previously from $560.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.33.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of MSFT opened at $483.16 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.59 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.36, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.07. Microsoft Corporation has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $507.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $500.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.71% and a return on equity of 32.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.30 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.89%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Company 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.