Hosking Partners LLP trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 2.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 174,511 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 3,884 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 1.4% of Hosking Partners LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Hosking Partners LLP’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $53,803,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $24,401,940,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 302,541,869 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $101,750,881,000 after purchasing an additional 8,108,943 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC bought a new position in Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $11,872,000. TD Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Microsoft by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,476,729 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $4,868,814,000 after purchasing an additional 3,207,415 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 129,107,118 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $43,313,705,000 after purchasing an additional 3,027,306 shares during the period. 69.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Cowen reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $330.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 22nd. UBS Group set a $330.00 price target on Microsoft in a research note on Monday, June 20th. Citigroup cut their price target on Microsoft from $330.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 27th. Redburn Partners began coverage on Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, June 29th. They set a “buy” rating and a $370.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $334.31.
Microsoft Price Performance
MSFT opened at $275.79 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.61, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $241.51 and a 1 year high of $349.67. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $268.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $278.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.75.
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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $2.17 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.73%.
About Microsoft
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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