Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd Purchases 138,990 Shares of Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 88.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 296,607 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 138,990 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.5% of Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $147,535,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 410.4% during the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,735,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $492.02 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.66 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $506.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $502.14.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.65 by $0.48. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 35.71%.The business had revenue of $77.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.30 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total transaction of $19,967,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total value of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,703,959.04. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $632.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Redburn Partners set a $560.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $637.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $632.34.

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.