Unique Wealth LLC Acquires 1,329 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Unique Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 21.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,450 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,329 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 0.9% of Unique Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Unique Wealth LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $2,802,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 634,238,715 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $147,714,197,000 after buying an additional 6,129,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 295,509,547 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $68,824,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951,554 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 215,874,152 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $68,162,263,000 after purchasing an additional 5,762,902 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 195,859,819 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $50,302,677,000 after purchasing an additional 556,020 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Microsoft by 112,158.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 150,187,424 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $36,017,948,000 after purchasing an additional 150,053,637 shares during the period. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.1 %

MSFT opened at $421.43 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $409.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $373.65. The company has a market capitalization of $3.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.10, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 1-year low of $272.05 and a 1-year high of $430.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 36.27%. The company had revenue of $62.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $61.14 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.32 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 11.63 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.12%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total value of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total value of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $420.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $420.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 15th. Macquarie boosted their price target on Microsoft from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $423.34.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.