Salomon & Ludwin LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 15.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,391 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 731 shares during the quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,662,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. State Street Corp boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 8,108,943 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $24,401,940,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.0% during 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 buying an additional 584,273 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 39,096,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $13,149,038,000 after buying an additional 652,526 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.29% of the company’s stock.
Microsoft Trading Down 0.6 %
Shares of MSFT opened at $261.47 on Thursday. Microsoft Co. has a one year low of $241.51 and a one year high of $349.67. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $270.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $277.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.78. The company has a market capitalization of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.93.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 26th. The software giant reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 previous year, the firm earned $2.17 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Microsoft Announces Dividend
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 given a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 17th. Microsoft’s payout ratio is currently 25.73%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
MSFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $352.00 to $312.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 8th. Wolfe Research dropped their target price on Microsoft from $320.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced 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. Guggenheim started coverage on Microsoft in a report on Friday, August 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $292.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $330.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.
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