Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. Purchases 111 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. increased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,762 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 111 shares during the quarter. Lloyd Advisory Services LLC.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,188,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 667,987,038 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $281,035,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,078,099 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.0% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,571,070 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $35,160,020,000 after purchasing an additional 842,884 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,511,544 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $15,426,767,000 after buying an additional 97,075 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Microsoft by 6.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 24,091,789 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $10,768,771,000 after buying an additional 1,563,533 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 14,738,956 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,587,576,000 after buying an additional 45,220 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup dropped their target price on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.03.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $422.99 on Friday. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $362.90 and a fifty-two week high of $468.35. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $421.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $426.39. The stock has a market cap of $3.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 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 (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

Microsoft declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to buy up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Microsoft news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. The trade was a 8.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,850,961.92. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 209,431 shares of company stock worth $85,796,688 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company 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.