DLK Investment Management LLC Acquires 2,068 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

DLK Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,089 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,068 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 5.9% of DLK Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. DLK Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $15,528,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after buying an additional 3,078,099 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.0% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,160,020,000 after buying an additional 842,884 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,511,544 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $15,426,767,000 after purchasing an additional 97,075 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Microsoft by 6.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,091,789 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,768,771,000 after purchasing an additional 1,563,533 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 14,738,956 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,587,576,000 after purchasing an additional 45,220 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on MSFT. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. DA Davidson downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Microsoft Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $422.99 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The company has a market capitalization of $3.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.90, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.91. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $362.90 and a 52-week high of $468.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $421.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $426.42.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at $219,349,953.73. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 209,431 shares of company stock worth $85,796,688 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.