Haverford Trust Co reduced its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,325,272 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 8,503 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 4.7% of Haverford Trust Co’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Haverford Trust Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $408,595,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aubrey Capital Management Ltd bought a new position in Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth $881,000. MCF Advisors LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the 1st quarter worth $6,405,000. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. now owns 8,057 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,484,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Microsoft by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 15,697,042 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,839,555,000 after purchasing an additional 40,408 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC now owns 134,727 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $37,963,000 after purchasing an additional 3,673 shares in the last quarter. 69.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Microsoft Stock Performance
Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $275.79 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $268.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $278.56. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $241.51 and a 52-week high of $349.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.61, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.93.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 26th. The software giant reported $2.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.29 by ($0.06). Microsoft had a return on equity of 43.31% and a net margin of 36.69%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.17 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 18th will be paid a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 17th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.73%.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several research analysts have commented on MSFT shares. Wolfe Research decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 29th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. UBS Group set a $330.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 20th. Royal Bank of Canada set a $380.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Microsoft from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $334.31.
Microsoft Profile
Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Skype for Business; Skype, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and LinkedIn; and Dynamics 365, a set of cloud-based and on-premises business solutions for organizations and enterprise divisions.
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