Rice Partnership LLC Grows Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Rice Partnership LLC raised its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 12.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 80,096 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 8,936 shares during the quarter. Microsoft comprises about 7.9% of Rice Partnership LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Rice Partnership LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $30,119,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 188 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 89.0% during the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 223 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. increased its position in shares of Microsoft by 160.7% during the 4th quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. now owns 232 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Microsoft during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $87,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MSFT. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. BNP Paribas raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Barclays boosted their target price on Microsoft from $421.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Microsoft from $450.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Microsoft from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $452.61.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock traded up $7.28 on Friday, hitting $406.32. 29,640,094 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,152,042. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day moving average of $414.48 and a 200 day moving average of $387.70.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $61.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.86 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.87% and a net margin of 36.43%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.45 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 574,129 shares in the company, valued at $236,414,839.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.78, for a total value of $18,530,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 574,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $236,414,839.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 11,677,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Microsoft Company Profile

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.