Graham Capital Wealth Management LLC Decreases Stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Graham Capital Wealth Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 33.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,711 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 841 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 1.0% of Graham Capital Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Graham Capital Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $765,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ted Buchan & Co acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter worth $2,566,000. Advisory Alpha LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 16.9% during the second quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 26,048 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $11,643,000 after buying an additional 3,773 shares during the period. IMS Capital Management increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 22,222 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,440,000 after buying an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. Regency Capital Management Inc. DE lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Regency Capital Management Inc. DE now owns 15,282 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $6,830,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 9,269 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,097,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the subject of several research reports. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Oppenheimer cut shares of Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 544,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 sold a total of 197,829 shares of company stock worth $80,966,837 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Microsoft Trading Down 2.8 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $415.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $362.90 and a one year high of $468.35. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $422.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $425.44.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.