Grimes & Company Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 1.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 154,952 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,494 shares during the period. Microsoft comprises about 2.5% of Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $47,773,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 302,541,869 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $101,750,881,000 after buying an additional 8,108,943 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 2.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 3,027,306 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $24,401,940,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 57,181,533 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $19,231,292,000 after purchasing an additional 584,273 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 39,096,786 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,149,038,000 after purchasing an additional 652,526 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.29% of the company’s stock.
Microsoft Stock Performance
MSFT opened at $261.47 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $270.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $277.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The stock has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.93. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $241.51 and a 1 year high of $349.67.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 26th. The software giant reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by ($0.06). Microsoft had a net margin of 36.69% and a return on equity of 43.31%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.
Microsoft Dividend Announcement
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 18th will be issued a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 17th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.73%.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Microsoft from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 25th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Microsoft from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. Wolfe Research cut their price target on Microsoft from $320.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Microsoft from $372.00 to $354.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 12th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday, July 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $334.31.
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.
See Also
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