Capstone Capital Wealth Advisors Purchases Shares of 1,575 Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Capstone Capital Wealth Advisors acquired a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,575 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $592,000. Microsoft makes up approximately 0.6% of Capstone Capital Wealth Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,987,007 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,152,647,000 after buying an additional 2,456,190 shares during the period. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $679,928,000. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,375,375 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,749,275,000 after acquiring an additional 1,796,956 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 243.6% in the third quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,151,555 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $679,353,000 after acquiring an additional 1,525,367 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $407.57 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $275.37 and a 1 year high of $430.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.03 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $414.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $386.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.22.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.32 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Barclays lifted their target price on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $434.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.