First National Bank of Hutchinson Purchases 32 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

First National Bank of Hutchinson increased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,337 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 3.9% of First National Bank of Hutchinson’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. First National Bank of Hutchinson’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $5,391,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Financial Security Advisor Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Financial Security Advisor Inc. now owns 27,270 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,255,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,359,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC now owns 8,213 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,089,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,497,000 after acquiring an additional 5,366 shares during the period. Finally, RNC Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,967,000 after acquiring an additional 6,484 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MSFT opened at $394.94 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $303.40 and a fifty-two week high of $430.82. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $414.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $389.48. The company has a market cap of $2.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 11.75 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSFT. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $465.00 target price (up previously from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 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.