Beck Bode LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 58.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 89,597 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 32,998 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up about 6.2% of Beck Bode LLC’s holdings, making the stock its biggest position. Beck Bode LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $27,624,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $24,401,940,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 302,541,869 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $101,750,881,000 after purchasing an additional 8,108,943 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth $11,872,000. TD Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 28.5% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,476,729 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,868,814,000 after purchasing an additional 3,207,415 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 129,107,118 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $43,313,705,000 after buying an additional 3,027,306 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.99% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada set a $380.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Thursday, May 19th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Microsoft from $352.00 to $312.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Microsoft from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 25th. UBS Group set a $330.00 target price on Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 20th. Finally, Wedbush lowered their price target on Microsoft from $340.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.72.
Microsoft Stock Performance
Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $287.02 on Friday. 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 firm’s 50-day moving average price is $263.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $279.64. Microsoft Co. has a 52-week low of $241.51 and a 52-week high of $349.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.93.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 36.69% and a return on equity of 43.31%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.17 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 17th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.73%.
Microsoft Profile
Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. Its Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, as well as related Client Access Licenses (CAL); 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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