Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Position Lowered by Aspen Investment Management Inc

Aspen Investment Management Inc decreased its stake in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 7.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 16,511 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,291 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 3.5% of Aspen Investment Management Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Aspen Investment Management Inc’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $8,213,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after buying an additional 13,691,572 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $88,714,256,000 after acquiring an additional 3,532,054 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 564,387.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $45,040,162,000 after purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Microsoft by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in Microsoft by 3.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 62,267,822 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $23,374,718,000 after purchasing an additional 2,306,485 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Daiwa Capital Markets dropped their price target on Microsoft from $640.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Baird R W raised Microsoft to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Finally, Arete Research lifted their target price on Microsoft from $710.00 to $730.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $632.34.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $491.02 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $506.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $501.85.

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

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 25.89%.

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.