First Personal Financial Services Reduces Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

First Personal Financial Services trimmed its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 35,660 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 554 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 3.3% of First Personal Financial Services’ portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. First Personal Financial Services’ holdings in Microsoft were worth $13,410,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sicart Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Sicart Associates LLC now owns 926 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $348,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Capital Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,592 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $599,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,866 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,434,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Triton Wealth Management PLLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Triton Wealth Management PLLC now owns 5,864 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,167,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, O Connor Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $692,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft 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 value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft 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 value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target 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. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $410.54 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.05 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $306.26 and a 12-month high of $430.82. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $413.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $392.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.45 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

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.