Dentgroup LLC Boosts Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Dentgroup LLC increased its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,648 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Dentgroup LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,115,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after acquiring an additional 6,129,708 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,824,173,000 after buying an additional 1,951,554 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after buying an additional 556,020 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 54,799,110 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $14,074,064,000 after buying an additional 784,656 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 49,440,386 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $11,514,665,000 after buying an additional 208,765 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Price Performance

NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $279.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $252.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $245.43. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $213.43 and a 1-year high of $315.95.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.05. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The firm had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.48 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.97%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. Credit Suisse Group set a $285.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 2nd. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $270.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $247.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $286.05.

Microsoft Profile

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.