Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stake Lowered by Klingman & Associates LLC

Klingman & Associates LLC trimmed its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 6.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,649 shares of the software giant’s stock after selling 1,703 shares during the period. Klingman & Associates LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $10,021,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSFT. Citizens National Bank Trust Department grew its position in Microsoft by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Citizens National Bank Trust Department now owns 34,723 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $13,057,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. OxenFree Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at $1,667,000. Q3 Asset Management bought a new stake in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth $2,130,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in Microsoft during the fourth quarter worth $45,000. Finally, Financial Council Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Microsoft by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Financial Council Asset Management Inc now owns 9,861 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,708,000 after buying an additional 326 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

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

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $412.32 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.70, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.89. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $306.26 and a 12 month high of $430.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $413.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $392.17.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 37.54%. The company had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.45 EPS. Microsoft’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.76 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.97%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $455.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $452.61.

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.