Absoluto Partners Gestao de Recursos Ltda Raises Stock Position in Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Absoluto Partners Gestao de Recursos Ltda boosted its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 12.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,213 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,437 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises approximately 4.0% of Absoluto Partners Gestao de Recursos Ltda’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Absoluto Partners Gestao de Recursos Ltda’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $6,572,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. AlphaQuest LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $170,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.9% during the second quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $178,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Seek First Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% during the second quarter. Seek First Inc. now owns 1,358 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $675,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Level Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.8% during the second quarter. Level Financial Advisors now owns 2,680 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,333,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Red Mountain Financial LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 0.7% in the second quarter. Red Mountain Financial LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,373,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 $26,703,959.04. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total value of $6,266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,577,620.48. The trade was a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $625.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. HSBC upped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $643.00 to $648.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Guggenheim set a $675.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $640.00 price target on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on Microsoft from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Two research 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $632.34.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $478.53 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. 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 $504.05 and a 200-day moving average of $502.05.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.65 by $0.48. The company 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%.Microsoft’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend 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.