Private Wealth Group LLC Invests $295,000 in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Private Wealth Group LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 784 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 89.0% during the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 223 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $87,000. Cordant Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 647.8% in the 4th quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 344 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Family CFO Inc raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 13.6% in the 3rd quarter. Family CFO Inc now owns 359 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $113,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Life Planning Partners Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $146,000. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com downgraded Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $455.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $480.00 target price (up from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Macquarie upped their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Stock Performance

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $413.54 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $413.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $391.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The company has a market capitalization of $3.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.80, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $306.09 and a 1-year high of $430.82.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

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.