Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position Boosted by Waycross Investment Management Co

Waycross Investment Management Co lifted its holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 2.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,490 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 220 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up approximately 3.3% of Waycross Investment Management Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Waycross Investment Management Co’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,572,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSFT. Financial Security Advisor Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Financial Security Advisor Inc. now owns 27,270 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $10,255,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares during the period. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,887 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $9,359,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 470,301 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,497,000 after acquiring an additional 5,366 shares during the period. RNC Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Microsoft by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 69,053 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $25,967,000 after acquiring an additional 6,484 shares during the period. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky raised its holdings in Microsoft by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 17,471 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,516,000 after acquiring an additional 1,245 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, 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 transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, 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 transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MSFT shares. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $489.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $465.00 target price (up previously from $455.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $480.00 target price (up previously from $450.00) on shares of Microsoft in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Trading Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ MSFT traded up $7.28 during trading on Friday, hitting $406.32. 29,640,094 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,152,042. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $414.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $388.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.20. Microsoft Co. has a 12-month low of $295.25 and a 12-month high of $430.82. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.89.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.43% and a return on equity of 38.87%. The company’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.45 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.71 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.97%.

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.