Evolution Wealth Management Inc. Acquires Shares of 1,930 Microsoft Corporation $MSFT

Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,930 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $960,000. Microsoft accounts for approximately 1.2% of Evolution Wealth Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft in the 2nd quarter valued at about $50,493,678,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 564,387.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 90,549,369 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $45,040,162,000 after purchasing an additional 90,533,328 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the first quarter worth about $18,733,827,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 49,640.3% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,967,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,905,904,000 after purchasing an additional 29,906,791 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI set a $640.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $639.00 price target on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Guggenheim set a $675.00 price objective on Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $630.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $650.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Two investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $631.03.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 12,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.52, for a total transaction of $6,266,880.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 129,349 shares in the company, valued at $63,577,620.48. This trade represents a 8.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider owned 461,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $239,402,668.08. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 54,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,598,872 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.8%

MSFT stock opened at $474.82 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $502.98 and its 200 day moving average is $502.77. The stock has a market cap of $3.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 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 1-year low of $344.79 and a 1-year high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The software giant reported $4.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.30 earnings per share. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 currently 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.