Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC Sells 7,846 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC cut its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 3.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 199,341 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 7,846 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up 7.6% of Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $99,154,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bulwark Capital Corp acquired a new position in Microsoft in the second quarter valued at $32,000. Westend Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 386.7% in the 2nd quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 155.7% during the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 156 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 29.9% during the 2nd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 126 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $632.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho cut Microsoft from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 price objective on Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $632.34.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of MSFT opened at $483.16 on Friday. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $507.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $501.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market cap of $3.59 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $77.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $75.49 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The company’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.89%.

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.