Botty Investors LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 10,813 shares of the software giant’s stock, valued at approximately $3,048,000. Microsoft accounts for about 0.9% of Botty Investors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. AAF Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 2.6% during the third quarter. AAF Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,279 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $360,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% during the third quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp now owns 9,907 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $2,793,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Hudock Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% during the third quarter. Hudock Inc. now owns 12,156 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,427,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Midwest Financial LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 4.0% during the third quarter. Johnson Midwest Financial LLC now owns 941 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $265,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ellevest Inc. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% during the third quarter. Ellevest Inc. now owns 11,472 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $3,234,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.01% of the company’s stock.
Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MSFT. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $400.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 20th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $325.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 27th. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, December 22nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $407.00 to $376.00 in a report on Thursday, January 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $350.46.
Shares of MSFT opened at $288.49 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $224.26 and a 12-month high of $349.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $325.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $309.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.86.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 25th. The software giant reported $2.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $2.32 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $51.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $50.80 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 38.51% and a return on equity of 45.80%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.03 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 9.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 16th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.74%.
In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 55,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $328.60, for a total value of $18,073,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 1,650 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $334.90, for a total value of $552,585.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 530,699 shares of company stock valued at $181,312,457. Corporate insiders own 0.05% of the company’s stock.
Microsoft Profile
Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes; Intelligent Cloud; and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment comprises products and services in the portfolio of productivity, communication, and information services of the company spanning a variety of devices and platform.
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