Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Judson Althoff Sells 25,000 Shares

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. The trade was a 17.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Microsoft Price Performance

Microsoft stock opened at $418.79 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s fifty day moving average is $421.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $426.35. Microsoft Co. has a 52 week low of $362.90 and a 52 week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The business’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.99 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. This is a positive change from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 27.39%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Oppenheimer downgraded Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, October 28th. DA Davidson downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group dropped their price target on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Microsoft from $515.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.03.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Synovus Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 8.3% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 445,759 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $191,812,000 after acquiring an additional 34,261 shares during the last quarter. Castellan Group raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 5.2% during the third quarter. Castellan Group now owns 21,154 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,103,000 after acquiring an additional 1,052 shares during the last quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 187.7% during the third quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 16,219 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $6,979,000 after acquiring an additional 10,581 shares during the last quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1,972.5% during the third quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC now owns 36,269 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $15,607,000 after acquiring an additional 34,519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 52.7% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 425,374 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $183,038,000 after acquiring an additional 146,725 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.13% 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.